Serrated Edges
by YearOfTheKitty
Summary: Kiba knows four things: First, this isn't paradise. Second, he liked it better when he was always a wolf. Third, he's got to find his pack before anyone else does. And fourth, he's part of this war whether he likes it or not. Yullen, TsumexKiba. HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

**Kitty: Another one of my odd crossovers. And older one, too, so don't be surprised if it doesn't read like my other fics. It's post-Wolf's Rain, but some indeterminate time in -Man… before the whole Fourteenth bit, I guess… just enjoy without looking too deeply, okay? It's been a long time since I've seen Wolf's Rain, so excuse any oddities on that front. Also, Yullen is the only definite pairing at this point, but I'd like to add KibaxTsume later… or would that put some of you off? Let me know, please, I'm here to serve! I also do not own either Wolf's Rain or -Man or any content found therein!**

**Chapter One**

"_How can you see into my eyes like open doors?_

_Leading you down into my core, where I've become so numb without a soul_

_My spirit's sleeping somewhere cold_

_Until you find it there in me and lead it back home."_

–_Evanescence, 'Bring Me To Life'_

It was raining.

It was _always_ raining. It had been ever since he had come to this godforsaken town, whenever that had been. He couldn't quite remember. One rainy day just blurred into another when you had nowhere to go and nothing to do.

In any case, the rain soaked straight through his leather jacket and white t-shirt. It slicked his normally untamable mane of black hair into a straight, dark mass. He stood on a street corner, looking left and right, utterly lost.

Not that he had really had a destination to begin with… but if he got one now, he wouldn't know where it was. He had been running since he had lost his pack and Cheza on the mountain. Ever since Paradise had opened…

But now he had no idea where he was, and nothing made sense anymore. Was this really Paradise? It didn't look like how he had imagined it at all. It was noisy and smelled like horses, and there were so many people everywhere that he didn't know where to look anymore. He had started out with the intention of finding out if his pack had come into Paradise like he had (after all, the dead went to Paradise when they died, didn't they?) but that was beginning to seem like an impossible task.

And somehow, he wasn't a wolf anymore.

After a while, the young man decided to move on. Standing here wasn't helping anything, least of all him. He made his way to a large building that smelled like food even to his woefully inadequate human nose. Through the windows, he could see people paying for food and rooms to sleep in.

He entered the noisy, firelit space as well, reaching into his pocket to pull out the money he had managed to lift from unsuspecting passerby's pockets (He had never thought Hige's pick-pocketing lessons would ever actually come in handy…). This he placed on the counter looking at the startled man behind it with expectant blue eyes.

"O-one room for tonight, sir?" the man regained himself. The young man nodded silently, and received a key and some change in return. He was turning away, about to head upstairs, when a racket at the door caught his attention.

"…weakling!" somebody outside was shouting. "Can't even stand a little bit of rain!"

"It's _nighttime_, Bakanda!" somebody hollered back. The voices were steadily approaching, and the man behind the counter was beginning to look nervous. Two strange people burst into the building, still arguing at the top of their lungs.

One was short, white-haired, and bearing a spectacular scar across the left side of his face. The taller one had black hair pulled back in a ponytail that flowed down his back, and sharp, angry features. Both wore black and silver coats, and a golden sphere with wings hovered above their heads.

The young man blinked. This was unexpected.

"Two, please," the white-haired one sniffed haughtily, slapping some money down on the counter before the startled man. The man scrambled to retrieve two keys, which he handed to the shorter of the two (the taller looked ready to bite off the next appendage that came within biting distance). "Thank you very much!" The boy marched away with his nose in the air, headed for the stairs currently being blocked by the young man.

"Move it!" the black-haired one snarled. The young man turned a gaze cold enough to freeze fire on him. The black-coated one merely sneered.

"Don't be so rude!" the shorter one admonished his companion. Then, with a pleasant smile, "Would you mind excusing us, please? We're very tired."

"Speak for yourself, weakling," the taller muttered.

"Nobody asked you!"

The young man moved aside without a word, his intense gaze boring into the side of the bickering pairs' heads.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking," the short one began. "Who are you? I've never seen you around here before."

"Kiba," the young man replied shortly. The taller of the two blinked.

"Fang," he said. Kiba merely looked at him. Was he introducing himself?

"Well, I'm Allen, and this is Kanda!" the youngest babbled, trying to break the sudden tension. So Fang wasn't his name, then. The boy continued, "Are you new around here?"

"Yes," Kiba paused. "I'm lost."

"Che. Figures," Kanda muttered. "You're a hell of a long way from Japan, though." Kiba didn't understand, but said nothing. Clearly, Japan was the place where his name had something to do with fangs. Why that would have any significance was beyond him and, frankly, he didn't really care enough to find out.

"I'd be glad to show you around… erm…" Allen glanced out the windows. "After it stops raining, that is."

"Idiot," Kanda growled. "We're supposed to be on a mission!"

"I'm fine," Kiba turned away to go upstairs.

"Please!" Allen's voice stalled him. There was a determined look on his scarred face. "I want to help you. It wouldn't be right to just leave you lost like this."

"…Fine," Kiba nodded and continued on his way upstairs.

"Jeez," Allen sighed gustily. "That guy talks less than _you_, Kanda!"

"Why did you do that?" Kanda snapped. "We've got a mission we're supposed to be completing! We need to find the Innocence, not go gallivanting off with the first creepy person we meet!"

"I can't let him go that quickly," Allen insisted. "He might have something to do with the Innocence."

"That is the lamest excuse…" Kanda began. He was stopped by Allen's hand, which migrated to cover his cursed eye as the boy spoke.

"Kanda. He's not a normal human. When I looked at him with my left eye… I saw his soul."

"He's an akuma? Why didn't you say so?!" Kanda's hand went to Mugen at his hip, prepared to rush up the stairs and kill the strange boy.

"No!" Allen hurried to block him. "I saw his soul, yes, but it wasn't the soul of an akuma, that's just it! Chained to him was the soul… of a white wolf."


	2. Chapter 2

**Kitty: Okay, getting to the main plot a bit here… Or, part of it, anyway. I think I'll enlist help for the disclaimer this time. Toboe?**

**Toboe: Hello! Can I help you with something, Kitty?**

**Kitty: Aw, he's so sweet! –hugs- Could you say the disclaimer for me?**

**Toboe: Um… sure… . YearOfTheKitty does not own -Man, Wolf's Rain, or any characters, ideas, or objects taken from them. **

**Kitty: Thanks Toby! Now, please, read, review, and enjoy!**

***

**Chapter Two**

"_Some say you can never really tame a wolf, and looks can fool…"_

–_David Clement-Davies, __The Sight_

"So where did you say you were from again?" Allen asked the next day. Kiba had found the boy waiting for him in the hall (you had to give the boy points for persistence) and had been summarily dragged off on a tour of the city. Thankfully, the incessant rain had finally ceased, so it wasn't as unpleasant as it could have been.

"I didn't."

"So where are you from?" Allen rephrased through teeth gritted into a smile. Talking to this guy was like pulling teeth.

"Nowhere," Kiba shrugged and looked at the sky. "I don't remember where I was born. I've been traveling for as long as I can remember."

"Really? You must have seen a lot of places then," Allen commented, in shock. That had been the longest speech the young man had ever given since Allen had met him. "I used to travel around, too. Do you have any family?"

"I used to," Kiba returned his gaze to his shoes, sadness creeping over his normally-unreadable features. "I lost them."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Allen hastily apologized. "I should have realized…"

"They aren't dead," Kiba interrupted, aiming his dry-ice eyes (freezing and burning all at once) on Allen. "They're just lost. I'm looking for them."

"So that's why you're traveling," Allen made an _ah_-ing sound as he realized. "I see. What are their names? Since I travel a lot, maybe I know them."

"I doubt it," Kiba snorted. A moment later, he reeled off a string of nonsense words. "Tsume, Hige, Toboe, and Blue. And Cheza."

"Um, are those names?" Allen blinked. The only words he had caught were 'blue' and 'and'.

"The first three mean claw, whiskers, and howling," Kanda noted. "Were your parents drunk when they named you or something?"

"Shut up!" Kiba snarled. Literally. His lips pulled back and his nose wrinkled up, and a growl rumbled up from deep within his chest. It was the most fearsome expression Allen had ever seen on a person, and he lived with _Kanda_. The white-haired boy leaped in with a million apologies, all the while surreptitiously moving so that Kanda was between him and Kiba. A buffer, if you will. The tangle-haired boy relaxed, returning to expressionless trudging.

"…Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't asked about us yet," Allen eventually resumed the one-sided conversation. Kiba didn't reply. Allen elaborated, feeling a little awkward. "You know, because we look pretty out of place around here, and we've got the rose cross and all…" He trailed off lamely. Kiba still didn't show even the slightest interest in the tour or Allen. "Well, it's because there have been reports of wolf attacks in the area," Allen finished, closely observing the other's reaction.

Just as he had hoped, Kiba immediately stiffened, head snapping up, shock written on his features.

"Do you know anything about wolves?" Allen asked innocently.

"More than either of you ever will," Kiba growled, his face darkening. "Wolves wouldn't attack people unless the people are doing something to them to provoke them. And I've been in this area for a while and haven't seen a single wolf."

"Why would they show themselves to _you_?" Kanda snorted. Kiba bristled, lips slowly curling back.

"They don't have to," he growled. "I haven't heard any howling, or seen any pawprints, or any other sign that wolves are around here! You're mistaken."

"Eyewitness reports say they saw a big, white wolf," Allen contradicted, completely making it up. As a matter of fact, they had come to investigate reports of a necklace that, when worn, caused the wearer to die of wild animal attacks. In fairness, the wild animals _might_ have been wolves that _might_ have been white. It was highly unlikely, but still possible.

"No…" Kiba jerked back as if slapped. His features settled into hard lines. "Where?" he barked.

"Where what?" Kanda demanded.

"Where was the last victim?" he replied.

"Over that way, but…" Allen pointed to the right. Kiba took off at a dead sprint without waiting to hear the rest. "Hey, wait up! This is our job!" Allen shouted, hurrying after the running boy. Kanda grumbled inarticulately and followed. Timcanpy zoomed overhead.

Kiba skidded around corners and blew past what few pedestrians there were, his leather jacket flapping behind him. Allen soon drew alongside him, guiding him. Kanda chose to remain behind, in the interest of not being viewed as 'with' the two others.

"Here… it is…" Allen finally panted, pulling to a halt in front of a small, unassuming house. Kiba screeched to a stop as well, not breathing half as hard as Allen. This annoyed the white-haired exorcist. The boy with the wolf soul knocked on the front door with the side of his fist, face still stormy.

"Yes?" a young woman answered the door, peeking around the frame timidly.

"Hello!" Allen mustered a bright smile. "We're here to investigate the death of a Mr. Johannes."

"Oh, yes, they told us you would be coming," the woman eyed Kiba's chest, puzzled by the presence of one without the rose cross. "Come in, please." She stepped aside, allowing the teens into the house. Kiba looked around disinterestedly, sniffing deeply. His nose scrunched up in distaste. Allen took a subtle whiff as well, but couldn't smell anything nearly bad enough to prompt such a face. He considered elbowing his companion to tell him to be more polite, but decided that he would rather keep his arm, and refrained.

"Johannes was a cobbler by trade," the woman was telling us. "One day a young man came in and bought a pair of shoes, but instead of money, he paid with a silver necklace. The young man claimed that it was cursed, and that it had killed his father. Johannes took it anyway. Silver is silver, after all. The next morning, I found him on the front doorstep…" the woman's voice faltered. "…he… he was all covered in blood and ripped up… like some animal had torn him apart…"

"There's no blood on the stoop," Kiba observed quietly. The woman cast him a strange look.

"Well, I wasn't very well just going to leave it all covered in blood, now, was I?"

"How long ago was this?" Allen attempted to regain control of _his_ investigation. Kiba began to suspect that he had been lied to.

"Just a day ago," the woman answered, wringing her hands absently. "One of those men in the white coats said he had called the Apostles of God to come examine the necklace, and that they would be here with all haste. I must admit, I expected you to be a bit older."

"They always do, ma'am," Allen's smile became a bit crooked. Kiba glanced at him interestedly. An Apostle of God? This childish chatterbox? He found it about as probable as the woman seemed to. He was sure now that the boy had deliberately misled him, for whatever purpose. What was more important was that with the scent of blood drenching everything, he couldn't tell what kind of animal had attacked and killed the man. It might have been a wolf, or it might have been a chipmunk for all he knew.

"What did you do with the body?" If he could see it, he would know immediately. Allen and the woman adopted identical expressions, as if they were questioning his sanity.

"I buried it," she replied simply. "In the cemetery." Kiba nodded, tilting his head so that his long bangs covered his eyes. It seemed there were no wolves after all. If there was a cemetery, the wolves would have dug up the corpses and eaten them first before attacking live people.

"May we see the necklace?" Allen requested. Kiba bridled a little at the plural, but held his tongue. Perhaps the necklace had the scent of Johannes's assailant on it. The woman nodded and led them further into the house. In the center of the kitchen was an oak table, and in the center of that table lay a silver necklace. Its chain was thick and masculine-looking, while the pendant was an opaque, white stone in the shape of a crescent moon. The moon was glowing.

"It wasn't glowing before," the woman said worriedly. Allen extended his left hand towards it, the jewel in the back of his hand burning hotter with every inch. He touched the stone with the tip of his finger.

A shockwave seemed to ripple outwards. Allen's arm and eye pulsed painfully in unison. Kiba's hair and jacket blew backwards, and he crossed his forearms arms in front of him defensively. The woman let out a little scream and scrambled out of the room. Neither boy acknowledged her departure.

"What was…?" Allen turned to Kiba, only to be met with the sight of two burning eyes and an expanse of white fur. For one, wild moment, he thought Kiba had become a wolf. An instant later, he realized that the ghostly wolf he had seen floating above Kiba's head, chained by its paw, had turned to glare at Allen. Every single one of its dripping teeth was exposed, and its bristling fur nearly vibrated with the force of its snarls.

Allen stumbled back in surprise, just as the wolf lunged forward. The jaws that had been aimed at his throat clamped around his upper arm, and he yelled in pain. The ghost-wolf drew back with red-stained fangs. Allen clapped a hand to the wound and backed away slowly.

He was pretty sure he had found the cause of the deaths.

Except that now Kiba was looking at him like he was crazy, unable to see the spirit right beside him. His eyes lit on the blood seeping through Allen's sleeve, and shock drew itself across his features.

"What…?" he whispered.

"Stay back!" Allen shouted, activating his left eye. With a whirr and a clacking sound, spinning gears materialized in front of it. As it appeared, Kiba became aware of the wolf that was still snarling at Allen as if he were responsible for all the evil in the world. His eyes nearly popped out as they followed the chain from the white wolf's paw to where it disappeared into his own chest.

"What is going on?" he demanded.

"I don't know, but that wolf, whatever it is, is killing whoever touches that necklace!" Allen hurriedly explained. The wolf, taking advantage of his distraction, jumped forward. There was a flash of light, and Allen's arm exploded into its invocated form. The wolf crashed against the white claw with enough force to push Allen right into the wall behind him (a scream of breaking wood split the air as the wall splintered) and, to the exorcist's amazement, latched its teeth into the arm as easily as it had his flesh one.

Allen grunted in pain and flung his arm out. The wolf released its hold, flipped in midair, and landed on its already-moving paws, charging right back at the scarred boy. Allen snatched at it with his claws, but the wolf slipped away like the ghost it was, actually running across Allen's outstretched arm right at the teen. Allen just barely managed to shake it off, flinging it into the right wall (another chorus of shattered wood) just before it reached him.

Kiba watched the fight as if frozen, paralyzed by the sheer craziness of it all. He was watching the ghost of _himself_—or, who he used to be—attacking someone. Every move, every lunge, every _growl_ was exactly the way he would have fought had he been a wolf again. And what did the chain mean?

"Kiba!" the young man's attention shifted back to Allen, who was holding up a gigantic, white claw to fend off the wolf's advances. The smooth surface was marred by a semicircular wound, exactly in the shape of Kiba's—the wolf's—jaws.

"Kiba, quick!" Allen shouted. "Grab the necklace!" He winced as the wolf's claws scored another line across his Innocence. All he could think of was that if the wolf defending the necklace was chained to Kiba, perhaps Kiba could call it off.

The tangle-haired teen nodded and ran to the side. The ghostly chain in his chest lengthened so that he could move away from the wolf on the other end of it. One pale hand reached out and snatched up the necklace, the stone moon swinging wildly at the end of it, silver rattling and flashing as it caught the light.

There was a flash of blinding light and another shockwave of energy that made Allen's hair stand on end. When the light had cleared, the ghostly white wolf was docilely sitting at Kiba's feet, tail curled around its paws, looking for all the world like a large pet dog. Kiba himself was staring at the no-longer-glowing moon with fascination.

"You're an accommodator," Allen's suspicions were confirmed. He deactivated his eye and arm and stepped closer to the shell-shocked Kiba. "That means you can control this Innocence."

"You mean I can summon that wolf?" Kiba murmured, running a hand along the silver chain.

"Probably, though we won't know until you invocate it," Allen replied.

"How do I do that?"

"Yours is an equipment-type, so you say its name and then 'invocate'," the exorcist cocked his head to the side. "I'm not sure if you just make up its name, or if it's supposed to tell you somehow, since I'm not very familiar with this type of…"

"Lunar Fang," Kiba murmured, still enraptured by the moon, which began to glow again. "Invocate."

"No, wait, don't…!" Allen's protest was cut off as the white wolf at Kiba's feet leaped, twisting, into the air. He jerked back, but the wolf wasn't attacking. An invisible wind blew Kiba's hair and jacket one more, and the moon was lost in a ball of white light. Kiba's outline and the wolf's both blurred into the white light.

The whiteness faded after a moment, to reveal a solid, corporeal wolf with snow-white fur and hawk-yellow eyes. The silver chain encircled its fluffy neck, the white moon pendant all but invisible against the similarly-colored fur.

"Kiba…?" Allen whispered. This was like nothing he'd ever seen. Admittedly, he wasn't exactly the most experienced exorcist in the world, but he was sure Komui would have mentioned it if Innocence could turn users into animals, wouldn't he?

"Finally," the white wolf seemed to grin, its tail wagging slightly. He paced in a circle, sniffing at himself. "I feel… strange."

"You're a wolf," Allen pointed out. "That's pretty strange."

"No, I mean I feel… powerful," Kiba stopped pacing to look at Allen. _Like I do on the night of the full moon_, he felt like adding. He didn't.

"You're an Innocence-wolf," Allen shrugged. "I'm willing to bet you're just as powerful as my arm or Kanda's Mugen now. But are you an equipment or parasite type?" Kiba twitched an ear uncertainly. It felt so good to be back in his normal body… he had been a puny human for far too long.

"C'mon, we'd better go find Kanda," Allen ordered. "We'll need to contact Komui about this." The wolf padded out of the room behind him, too caught up in the joy of his new/old body to care who Komui was. The woman peeked out of an adjoining room. At the sight of the wolf, she shrieked and slammed the door again. Allen and Kiba exchanged glances and mutually decided to ignore her. They exited the house just as Kanda was raising his hand to knock on the door.

"Oi, beansprout, what's the idea, running off like…" Kanda trailed off, staring at the lupine figure behind the short exorcist. "So you found a white wolf, after all. It ate the one with the bad hairdo, I presume?"

"I'm right here!" Kiba barked angrily.

"He kinda activated the Innocence necklace," Allen scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "And _poof…_ he was a wolf."

"Well, that solves one problem," Kanda didn't seem fazed at all by this. He had probably seen stranger things, Kiba assumed. "You go call the sister-complex. I'm going to get train tickets." And with that, he was striding away as if eager to be rid of Allen.

"Yes, sir," Allen muttered sarcastically. "Hey, Kiba, you might want to deactivate that now. People are sure to panic if a huge wolf comes waltzing through their village."

"How?"

"I'm… not sure," Allen admitted. "I'm a parasite-type, so all I really have to do is will it away… I'm not sure how it works with equipment-types."

Kiba turned his gaze inward, his sharp eyes glazing over. In the end, it was exactly like letting go of his human illusion to turn back into a wolf, except that this time, in this place, he was letting go of his wolf illusion to turn back into a human. When he was bipedal again, he gazed sadly at the-moon pendant. He felt weak and soft and helpless like this. He wished he was a wolf again. Nevertheless, he silently followed Allen through the streets back to the inn they had stayed at overnight.

The wolf/human stood back while the black-coated teen approached the phone the man behind the counter had directed them to, tucked into a secluded corner. Allen reached up and snatched the fluttering, golden ball (Kiba still didn't know what it was) out of the air, hooking it up to the telephone.

After a few moments, Komui's voice blared through the speaker.

"Allen! How are you? How is your mission going? No trouble, I hope?"

"Kind of," Allen sighed. "We found the necklace all right, and even its user. But it's a strange kind of Innocence… When I first saw the user, I could see a wolf spirit chained to him like an akuma's soul, except that he wasn't an akuma. Later, when I touched the necklace, the wolf attacked me and broke my arm. When the user touched the necklace, though, the wolf stopped. He activated it out of curiosity before I could stop him, and he actually turned into a real wolf! I've never seen anything like it."

"That is strange…" Komui mused. There was a moment of static, like the supervisor had sighed. "I'll see what I can dig up about other types of Innocence users, though I doubt I'll find anything. Innocence is still a bit of a mystery to us, so it should come as no surprise that there are types we don't know about… what worries me more is that you said the user had a wolf spirit chained to him even before he activated the Innocence. What do you know about him?"

Allen lowered his voice since Kiba was standing just a few feet away. "Well, his name is Kiba. He didn't give a surname. He said he couldn't remember where he was born and that he'd been traveling for as long as he could remember. Oh, and that he had been separated from his family. They all had a bunch of weird Japanese names, too."

"Thank you, Allen," Komui said seriously. "See what you can find out about him; I'll be doing the same on this end. Bring him back to headquarters with all speed. Regardless of the circumstances, we are always in dire need of new exorcists."

"Of course." Allen and Komui said their goodbyes and hung up. Allen closed his eyes for a moment, feeling tired. He knew that the Order was _not_ in dire need of new exorcists, whatever Komui said. It was in dire need of _experienced_ exorcists, not untrained greenhorns who would be killed in their first battle. Regardless, he had no choice in the matter, though it sickened him that he might be sending this kindhearted (if a bit closemouthed) teen to die in a war when he had his whole life ahead of him (and still hadn't found his family). His scuffle with the wolf gave him a bit of hope; if Kiba could fight as well as that spirit could, he might stand a chance.

"He said we were to bring you back to headquarters," Allen finally turned to the patiently-waiting brunet. "Let's go to the train station to find Kanda."

"I will become an Apostle of God?" Kiba asked in his quiet voice.

"Yes," Allen nodded. There didn't seem much more to say after that, since Kiba took this news with his usual deadpan silence. Allen led the way to the train station, thanking the man at the counter as he went past. The trip passed in silence, and the pair quickly found themselves by the railroad with Kanda, who had procured tickets for them.

Around ten minutes later, Allen remembered that Kiba was lost and, while they waited, proceeded to inform him that he was currently in a country known as England, and that they were headed for the city of London (which was only a few hours' train ride away) where they would enter the headquarters of the Dark Order. He continued on to explain what exorcists did, what Innocence was, and who the Millenium Earl and the Noah were. Kiba listened in silence.

The train arrived soon enough, and still Kiba said nothing. He remained silent all throughout the train ride (short as it was) to London. It was only as they were walking through the city that Allen began to worry about their companion's prolonged silence. Did the teen not believe him? No, he had to, he had seen the Innocence himself, used it himself. Was he in shock? Allen somehow doubted that people who were in shock stood and walked like always. Then what was it?

It was when Kiba climbed into the little boat and sat beside him without a single word that Allen snapped.

"SAY SOMETHING, ALREADY!" he half-shouted at the tangle-haired boy. Kiba blinked at him, looking mildly surprised, further incensing the exorcist. He gesticulated wildly as he spoke. "I just dumped the shock of a lifetime on you! I just turned your life inside out and thrust you into a war that might kill you against an enemy as ancient as the world itself! You're supposed to express concern or surprise or doubt or _something_! Instead you just sit there staring at nothing! What are you _thinking_ about?!"

There was a momentary pause.

"…I was wondering if lunar flowers grow around here," Kiba answered. Allen groaned loudly and allowed his head to slump forward until his forehead hit the prow. Kanda, punting the boat, smirked.

"Nice speech, though, Moyashi."

"What exactly is a lunar flower?" Allen's voice was muffled by defeat and the wood.

"A flower that only blooms during the full moon," Kiba responded.

"Never heard of it," Allen grunted. "Why would you want to know about that, anyway?"

"Because if there are lunar flowers, my family will come," Kiba gazed at the bottom of the boat as he gave his quiet answer.

"Forget about your family, kid," Kanda instructed. "Exorcists aren't allowed to contact their families in case they die, so their parents or siblings or whatever can't bring them back as akuma."

"That doesn't matter. My family would never try to bring me back," Kiba asserted confidently. "They know better."

"Don't be so sure," Allen cautioned. "What would you do if your family died?"

_Travel the world,_ he silently answered. _Fight a war. Give up my true body._

"Plant a lunar flower," he answered aloud. A smirk twisted his lips. And, then, for the first time since they had met him, Kiba threw back his head and laughed.

It sounded like barking.


	3. Chapter 3

**Kitty: Well, keeping this one going, even if I have only one reader. As a matter of fact, I have a confession to make…**

**Toboe: She forgot Hevlaska.**

**Kitty: Yes! In the original draft of this chapter, there was no Hevlaska. Then I got your review, Drake G. Reaper, and I realized. D'oh! I fixed it, and she's there now. This chapter's a little filler-y, but it's got some relevant stuff in it, too. It's the next chapter where things start to get heated. ^_^ Now, Toby, if you'd be so kind…**

**Toboe: YearOfTheKitty does not own Wolf's Rain or -Man. Or Breaking Benjamin. **

**Kitty: Good boy. –gives Toboe a treat- Now, read and enjoy!**

***

**Chapter Three**

"_Every time I get it, throw it away_

_It's a sign, I get it; I want to stay_

_By the time I lose it, I'm not afraid_

_I'm alive but I can surely fake it."_

—_Breaking Benjamin, 'Forget It'_

"So… Kiba was it?" Komui looked over his glasses at the messy-haired teenager sitting on his couch. His arms rested on his knees, and he hunched forward as if ready to flee at any moment. He nodded shortly, twitching as Allen sneezed, sending a pile of papers fluttering to the cluttered floor.

"No surname?" Komui pressed. Kiba shook his head. "Can you tell me why I wasn't able to find anything about anyone named Kiba answering to your description in our databases?" The scientist swiftly discovered the only way to force the young man into speech: non-yes-or-no questions.

"I'm new around here," his piercing gaze drilled into Komui's as he spoke. "I travel a lot."

"So you've said," Komui hummed thoughtfully. "I can't help but find it a bit suspicious that an accommodator appears out of seemingly nowhere, conveniently revealing himself to our most skilled exorcists who just so happen to be investigating his specific piece of Innocence. Don't you think?" Kiba said nothing. "Have you named your Innocence yet?"

"Lunar Fang," Kiba closed his hand around the cool, white stone, as if to protect it.

"Would you mind activating your eye for me, Allen?" Komui requested.

"Sure," Allen nodded. The gears whirled to life, and Komui, Kanda, and Kiba were suddenly able to see the white wolf. It was curled up around Kiba's feet, staring up at Komui with ambivalence. The chain emerging from his chest still unsettled the former wolf.

"Ah, I see…" Komui leaned forward and adjusted his glasses. "Can you touch it, Kiba?" Kiba leaned down and extended his hand. It passed straight through the wolf's head. Kiba snatched his hand back as if burnt. The wolf lazily stood and turned to face Kiba. The big, white head pressed into his knee, red tongue flicking out to swipe across the hand there. Kiba started in surprise as the wolf, insubstantial again, lay back down on his feet.

"I can't touch him," he reported. "But he can touch me."

"Why do you refer to it as 'he'?" Komui wanted to know. Kiba shrugged.

"Because he's a boy."

"Fair enough," Komui chuckled a bit. "In any case… I'd like to see you invocate, if you don't mind."

"Lunar Fang," was Kiba's reply. "Invocate."

There was the usual flash of light and melding of shapes, and Kiba was a wolf once more.

"This is like nothing I've ever seen before," Komui murmured, enraptured. "The Innocence itself remains unchanged, so it's not an equipment type, but the necklace is separate from his body, so it isn't a parasite type. The Innocence must somehow transfer its energy into your body to change it, while the necklace itself is simply a vessel… None of this, however, explains why the wolf is there even when your Innocence is deactivated…" His gaze sharpened, coming back to earth with an almost audible _bump_. "Is there anything you're not telling us, Kiba, anything at all?"

"…" Kiba sat and gazed at his paws pensively. Should he tell them…? Eventually, he shook his head. "Nothing I can think of." Komui jumped, startled at hearing the wolf speak.

"Well, in that case…" Komui paused and beamed.

"Your training shall begin immediately."

***

Kiba looked around himself, severely unimpressed. This place, wherever it was, he had noted, was significantly handicapped in the 'technology' section. Heck, Freeze City—as run-down and impoverished as it was—had more advanced tech than this place… Granted, there was less graffiti.

Still, the hovering elevator he found himself on was more advanced than anything he'd seen in this place so far. (They used _horse-drawn carriages_ in the towns. Those things were too outdated for _museums_ where he came from—not that Freeze City was big on cultural history anyway.) It went down a dark shaft in the center of the Headquarters' tower, ringed by railed walkways. Komui was working the controls in a corner, having already told Kiba that he usually used this ride to explain the finer points of being an exorcist, though since Allen had already summed it up for Kiba that lecture was now unnecessary.

Instead, Kiba focused on the glow at the bottom of the shaft that was steadily coming closer. It didn't look electrical, more organic than that… The closest thing he'd ever seen would be… But that was impossible. Allen had said there were no lunar flowers around here, and they couldn't grow in a building without moonlight anyway! Unless…

Cheza.

_No_, Kiba shook his head. _Allen told me he'd never heard of Cheza, so it can't be her. He wouldn't lie about that… would he…?_

"It is now time to inspect your Innocence," Komui suddenly announced, the elevator jerking to a halt. "Go to it, Hevlaska."

Before Kiba had time to react to that inane statement, tendrils of light shot over the platform's railing to wrap securely around Kiba's arms. More tentacles soon curled around his waist, and the platform dropped out from under Kiba's shoes. He was surrounded by a net of glowing, white fibers as thick as his arms and much, much stronger. Kiba couldn't help what happened next, which was as involuntary as it was rare.

He panicked.

"Let me go!" he snarled, hitting out and kicking with all his strength, never once giving a thought to the almost-surely fatal drop beneath him. The white substance was like water, parting before his feet and fists, but keeping a firm grip on his limbs to keep him suspended. Kiba only fought that much harder, his natural claustrophobia surging up within him.

They each had their own 'things' in his pack. Toboe was reduced to a trembling, whimpering heap at the slightest mention of death. Any reference to Hige's memory loss sent the brown wolf straight into the pits of despair, and to talk to Cheza about being the last of her kind was to create a sobbing flower maiden—which would in turn bring a pack of angry wolves down on your head. Previously, Kiba's 'thing' had always been an allusion to the idea that maybe, possibly there was a chance that Paradise might not exist. After his journey, however, Kiba discovered a new complex within himself.

Restraints.

It was partially related to his twitchiness inside Komui's office. The only times he'd ever entered a human building was unwillingly, usually as a prisoner of some sort. Buildings restricted his ability to run, and that was unacceptable to a wolf whose entire life had been built upon running. A step up from buildings, however, were restraints. The last time Kiba had been inside of a building, he'd been strapped down to a table and practically completely exsanguinated. The time before that, he'd been stuffed in a cage and left to bleed out from gunshot wounds. There was nothing—_nothing_—that brought up bad memories within Kiba like not being able to move.

Komui might have been shouting something, or Kiba might have been shouting himself. He didn't know. But the white things were not relinquishing their grip, no matter how hard he fought. In fact… they were tightening…

"Please, calm down," someone pleaded. "I don't want to drop you." That voice…

"Cher?" Kiba paused in his struggles, confused. Cher was dead… but, then, so was he, technically. Had the scientist somehow found her way here, too? He looked up, in the direction of the voice.

And blinked. The glowing tentacles… they fed backwards into a large, glowing mass that was slightly transparent. It thinned near the top, where it was shaped into something a bit like a woman's head on a stalk, though the top was concealed by purplish tentacles. It was this face/head/worm that had spoken.

"I am Hevlaska," the thing told him. "I will check your Innocence, and determined your synch rate with it."

"Ah," Kiba relaxed. They could have just told him, he though, a little angrily. He got all worked up for nothing. Hevlaska seemed to pause in the act of leaning down.

"You… no longer fear me?"

"No," Kiba shrugged. The tentacles had loosened around him now that he was no longer struggling. He felt a little stupid now, both for losing control and for mistaking this… person for Cher. Ah, well, who was Komui going to tell? Anyone whose opinion Kiba valued was long gone.

Hevlaska continued her movement, coming to rest with her forehead pressed to Kiba's. The wolf kept his eyes open, staring unblinkingly into the bright spot where the creature's eyes should have been. Purple lips began to move, softly counting.

"Fifty percent… sixty-three percent… seventy-nine percent…" then, incredulously, "…sixty-eight percent…? Forty-one percent… Ninety percent…! Twenty-three percent…! One hundred percent!" Then, with a strangled gasp, the thing broke away, jerking her head back to full height. She appeared to be gasping for breath.

"Hevlaska?" Komui's voice sounded thin and small in the abrupt silence, though quite worried.

"I am fine," she said after a moment. "No… there is something wrong. His Innocence..." she paused, struggling for words. "…There is an imbalance. It is synched completely… but not with him."

"How is that possible?" Komui inquired. "He is the accommodator, and has used the Innocence before with no ill effects that we can see. Though… there is the matter of its type…"

"It is like nothing I have ever seen," Hevlaska admitted. "It is as if there is something missing…"

Kiba frowned. What was he missing? The obvious answer was his pack, but they had nothing to do with Innocence. Cheza? Perhaps…

"Can Innocence be used by more than one person?" Kiba spoke up. Two heads turned towards him.

"We have never seen two exorcists both able to wield the same piece of Innocence," Hevlaska answered. "Then again, we have never seen Innocence like yours, either." Seeming to come to a decision, she continued. "I will try once more."

This time when their foreheads pressed together, the creature remained calm. Her voice was a soft murmur.

"Eleven percent… thirty-two percent… forty percent… forty-six percent… forty-four percent… forty-five percent…" she drew back once more. "It seems that the fluctuations have decreased."

"Is it safe for him to use it?" Komui asked the pertinent question.

"I believe so. It is unlikely he will suffer any ill effects other than the usual strain of those with a low synch rate. I would advise caution, however," Hevlaska counseled. Her tentacles gently lowered Kiba back down onto the elevator.

"Can you see anything else for him?" the scientist pressed. Hevlaska bowed her head.

"I am sorry. I cannot control these predictions of mine; at the moment, I see only what any other might. I would, however, advise that you discover what is missing quickly. Problems swept beneath the rug merely fester out of sight," purple lips curved in a gentle smile, literally beaming down at Kiba. "Good luck, boy with the soul of a wolf."

"Farewell," Kiba murmured in return as he watched the glowing woman-worm slither out of sight. The elevator began to move rapidly upwards.

"You took that exceptionally well," Komui noted. "Most people struggle _harder_ once they realize what's got them is alive. Allen certainly did…"

"She reminds me of the walrus," Kiba said, still leaning over the railing.

"…The what?"

Kiba smiled.

"Nothing."

***

Later, Allen showed Kiba his new room, which vaguely reminded the teen of a prison cell except without barred windows. The boy sprawled out on the thin mattress, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

He wondered if this was the right decision. Allen had said exorcists traveled a lot, so he would have a better chance of finding his pack than just wandering aimlessly… but did he really want to get caught up in a war? Then again, what choice did he have? They would just force him to fight if he tried to resist, and even if he did manage to get away, what would he do? Just wander around like a homeless vagrant for the rest of his life. Hevlaska's words worried him slightly, but traveling around as an exorcist would surely help him find this 'missing piece'.

The choice was obvious really. And if he could find some lunar flowers to plant around headquarters, he was positive that the others would eventually find him. Surely they were searching for him… weren't they? No, they had to be. They were not dead. If he wasn't, they couldn't be either. No way.

No way.

So that left him with becoming an exorcist. Well, he supposed it could be worse. At least this place seemed far more inviting than anywhere he'd ever been before. There were other people here, too, like Allen and Kanda, so he wouldn't be too lonely (a wolf's ultimate nightmare, and one he was all too familiar with). And he'd be working for a greater cause, right? A noble one. He'd be part of something.

That was it. Until he found Tsume, Hige, Toboe, and Blue, the exorcists would be his pack.

This decided, he rolled over and quickly fell asleep.

***

"Lenalee, this is Kiba, our newest exorcist. Kiba, Lenalee Lee, Komui's little sister," Allen made the introduction through a mouthful of food, gesturing between Kiba and a pigtailed girl with a fork and a friendly smile. Kiba observed her expressionlessly.

"Nice to meet you, Kiba," she sat across from Kiba, next to Allen. "I'm glad you're here. We need all the help we can get. What's your Innocence?"

"Lunar Fang," Kiba tapped the pendant at his throat. Lenalee nodded, a knowing look on her face.

"That's pretty," she commented. "Mine is Dark Boots," she tapped her foot meaningfully as she spoke. "So how are you liking headquarters so far?"

"It's fine," Kiba turned his face to the table in front of him and almost wished that he had gotten some food just to have something to do with his hands. He wasn't hungry, though, since he had eaten just two days previously. And human food was disgusting anyway.

"Kiba doesn't say much," Allen told Lenalee, again through a mouthful of food. "He doesn't mean to be rude. Unlike some people." Here he cast a meaningful glance down the table at Kanda.

"Aw, Allen, that's not a nice thing to say about Lenalee!" a voice said from behind Kiba. The new exorcist did not turn, assuming that the voice's owner would come around and take a seat at their table.

This assumption was proven wrong a few seconds later when two hands slapped down on each of Kiba's shoulders and a voice hollered "BOO!" mere inches from his ear.

The perpetrator (a redheaded boy with an eye-patch) found himself lying half-across somebody's lunch two tables over with a bruising pain in his stomach in the time it took Allen to blink. Kiba shook his bruised hand and sat back down, now really wishing he'd gotten something to eat, though grateful that his first instinct had been to punch rather than to bite. The redhead was back at their table momentarily, beaming wildly.

"That was an awesome punch, my friend, and I've been on the receiving end of many punches! Kudos on the reflexes, too, they're killer. Who are you, anyway?"

"You terrified him without even knowing who he was?" Lenalee rolled her eyes.

"He's Kiba, the newest exorcist," Allen told him. "Kiba, that's Lavi, or Bookman Jr., if you prefer."

"Heya, Keebs!" Lavi pounded the irritated boy on the back. "Nice tameetcha! What kind of Innocence…"

"Lunar Fang," Kiba headed off the familiar question, again gesturing his necklace.

"Wicked awesome," Lavi exclaimed, grabbing the pendant to examine it more closely and nearly choking Kiba in the process. "It looks like adularia, but if so it's one of the most opaque moonstones I've ever seen…"

_I thought it was quartz,_ Kiba shrugged internally. So he was no geologist.

"Oi, Lavi, you ever heard of lunar flowers?" Allen broke in.

"Eh? No, not outside of legends," Lavi blinked and released Kiba, who rubbed his throat ruefully. "Why?"

"Kiba was looking for some," Allen shrugged.

"You're shit outta luck there, Keebs," Lavi said cheerfully. "They don't exist. Much like the bottom of Allen's stomach that way. How can you stand to look at that?" He waved a hand at the sickening amount of food Allen was consuming.

"I'm eating extra today to help me get over the trauma of having my arm fixed by Komui," Allen shuddered at the memory. "The least Kiba can do is watch, since he was the one who bit me."

"Bit you?" Lenalee repeated, confused. "How did that break your Innocence?"

"Lunar Fang turns Kiba into an Innocence-Wolf," Allen told the two listeners. "Komui says it's a new kind of Innocence. He's decided to call it 'transformation' Innocence for now."

"Why aren't you eating anything?" Lavi suddenly asked, noticing the lack of food in front of Kiba. "If Allen's eaten your food, too, I'll gladly help you kick his ass."

"I'm not hungry," Kiba muttered, hiding his eyes behind his bangs. This, unfortunately, drew Lavi's attention.

"You seriously need to be introduced to a comb, my friend," he grabbed a lock of wavy raven hair and yanked. "You look like a bum."

"He's a vagrant," Kanda interjected from where he sat, several seats away, eating noodles with chopsticks. Lenalee startled a little, not having noticed him sitting there. Kiba curled his upper lip at the indifferent swordsman.

"Do I hear a new nickname?" Lavi's visible eye sparkled with emotion. "You've really hit it off with Yuu, if he's giving you a nickname!"

"Shut it, idiot rabbit," Kanda snapped.

"See? Allen's a beansprout, and now you're the vagrant!" Lavi declared triumphantly.

_Why is mine an insult?_ Kiba wondered. He stood and turned to walk away, ignoring the rambunctious redhead.

"Wait, Kiba!" he paused momentarily at Lenalee's call. "You're going to need to get an exorcist coat, soon. You have to wear it on all missions, like we do, okay?" Kiba lifted a hand in acknowledgement as he strode away. As soon as he was out of the cafeteria, Lenalee rounded on the apprentice Bookman. "Why are you such a pest to him, Lavi? What did he do to you?"

"Relax, Lena," Lavi held up his hands, laughing. "I was just testing him out, that's all! Besides, it's practically a tradition to give the newbies a hard time."

"Everyone was pretty nice to me when I first got here," Allen objected.

"You wouldn't have been able to handle my full-power pest-mode," Lavi wiggled his eyebrows, grinning. "Few people can."

"Humph," Allen bit off a ball of mitarashi dango and subsided, wondering if he had just been insulted.

"In any case, what's his story?" Lavi jerked his head at the seat Kiba had been sitting in. "And what's that you said about a new type of Innocence?"

"Well, like I said, when he activates his Innocence, he turns into a wolf, and his necklace becomes just a normal necklace. Komui thinks the Innocence may put all its energy directly into his body, and when he deactivates it, the energy returns to the necklace," Allen leaned his cheek on his fist and blew a sigh.

"His story is the harder part. I know next to nothing about him except that he claims to have been traveling the world for as long as he can remember, looking for his lost family. Kanda says his name is Japanese, and most of his family has Japanese names, too, but why would he be looking for them in Europe if that's the case? He hasn't told me this, but I don't think he can read, either." Allen had come to this conclusion while observing the way the older boy's eyes flicked over signs as if they weren't even there. As if he didn't know what writing _was_, much less be able to read it.

"He doesn't say much at all, especially not about himself. He seems convinced that these lunar flowers are real, and the key to being reunited with his family. He took the entire story about the war in stride, and didn't even seem to care that he would be forced to die for it. And strangest of all…" Allen lowered his voice. "Even before he found his Innocence, I can see the soul of a white wolf chained to him with my left eye, just as if he were an akuma, except that he isn't."

"Wow," Lavi sat back, looking thoughtful. Lenalee looked torn between curiosity and worry. "Do you think we can trust him?"

"I'm not sure," Allen admitted. "I'd like to think he's trustworthy, but as Kanda keeps telling me, I'm pretty naïve about these kinds of things." The white-haired boy shot a dirty look at Kanda, who was pretending he wasn't listening raptly to the conversation. At the pale exorcist's words, however, he couldn't hold back a smirk. Allen huffed. "Anyway, what choice do we have? We need exorcists."

"That's true," Lenalee nodded, still looking worried. "But even so… He seems so sad. Maybe one of us," she glared at Lavi, "should go tell him we didn't mean to give him a hard time, hmm?"

"You know what?" Lavi jumped up as if he'd been electrocuted, hauling Allen up with him. "I just had a great idea! Allen and I are going to go apologize to the vagrant! C'mon, beansprout." The protesting teen was carted off by an enthusiastic Lavi, his shouts cut off abruptly as they exited the cafeteria.

"Glad that's over with…" Lenalee sighed, reveling in the peace and quiet.

"Animals."

"What?" Lenalee shot a questioning look at Kanda. The swordsman stood, holding his now-empty tray.

"The vagrant's family. Their names are Fang, Claw, Whiskers, and Howling, as well as two others. Those are animal names."

"What could that mean, though?" Lenalee's brow furrowed in thought. "Could it have something to do with his transformation?"

"Maybe," was all Kanda said as he strode away. Lenalee was left alone at the table, an uneasy feeling in her stomach. The silence suddenly wasn't so peaceful anymore.


	4. Chapter 4

**Kitty: I debated mentioning this, but just in case, I'll say it. For the next few days I'm going to be tied up in this summer camp-thingy I'm doing. It'll only be two, three days max, but I'm warning you anyway since this fic sees pretty frequent updates. Just FYI. **

**Toboe: This story is getting lots of readers.**

**Kitty: I know! I thought it would be my least popular… SHAMELESS AD WARNING if any of you out there like Kingdom Hearts, please check out my fic All For Naught! It's not nearly as angsty as the title sounds, and it's the best thing I've ever written. Much better than this thing.**

**Toboe: I like this thing… -pout-**

**Kitty: So cute! –hug- Now, do you honestly think I could own such a cute face? I couldn't even draw a fanart pic of him…**

**Toboe: Please, review and enjoy!**

***

**Chapter Four**

"_See me here, in the air_

_Not holding on to anywhere_

_But holding on, so beware_

_I have secrets I won't share."_

—_t.A.t.U, 'Clowns'_

Allen fetched Kiba later that afternoon, bringing him to Komui's office.

"It's usually standard procedure for new exorcists to be trained here at headquarters or by a General before being assigned to field missions," Komui said. Allen, looking between the supervisor and Kiba, realized that he was standing in a room with the only two people in the world who could match Kanda cold stare for cold stare. He wasn't sure exactly where all the hostility had come from, but if Kiba had been in his wolf form his hackles definitely would have been up. "However, you already know how to fight, correct?" Kiba nodded curtly, without breaking eye contact. "Well, then, I think in this case it would be appropriate to send you on a mission with another exorcist to help you out in a pinch."

"Komui…" Allen broke in, worried. "Are you sure that's a good idea? He's never fought an akuma before. I know we desperately need exorcists, but is skipping his training entirely really a wise decision?"

"We have no choice, Allen," Komui sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose just under his glasses. "The higher-ups want to see him in action, to see this new Innocence. They want confirmation that it's no threat to the Order. I managed to talk them out of sending a representative instead of another exorcist, but we're going to have to send a golem along to record any fighting that may occur. No Finder on this one, either; Kiba's supposed to be all on his own."

"I'll be fine," Kiba asserted, staring at a point somewhere just to the left of Komui's head. "I can fight."

"Have you ever dodged a rain of bullets?" Allen demanded, exasperated with the teen's lack of emotion. He wasn't at all expecting Kiba to nod in response to his rhetorical question. "Really? Er… still! They're _poisonous_ bullets, and we won't know if your Innocence makes you immune to them unless you get hit, and by then it's too late!"

"I won't get hit," Kiba promised monotonously. "I can more than hold my own in a fight, and I've fought with bullet wounds and broken bones before. I'll be fine."

"What have you been doing that would make such actions necessary?" Komui's eyebrows rose in surprise and inquiry. Kiba shrugged.

"People don't trust what's different. And all too often I look like the enemy."

"I can see that," Komui remarked, eyeing the boy's rat's nest of hair. "Though I hesitate to use that vulgar nickname our Kanda has bestowed upon you, you certainly look the part."

Unbeknownst to anyone but Kiba himself, the teen _had_ attempted to brush it into some semblance of normalcy earlier, only to learn that he had gone so long without grooming it that it was hopelessly knotted into place. The only way he was going to get it neat would be to rip it out or ask someone to help him. (And he would sooner shave his head himself than ask for help with such a vain, trivial thing.) He supposed that his past had made him sloppy. After all, there was no need to brush the hair of his human illusion, since he would be a wolf only moments later, making the whole exercise fairly pointless. Even now, he kept forgetting that there was no changing back and forth at will anymore. He kept forgetting he was a human.

"In any case, here are the mission details," Komui handed a folder to Kiba and one to Allen. "Allen, you'll be going along with him to make sure he can handle himself. I'm counting on you."

"I'll be _fine_," Kiba let a trace of exasperation creep into his voice. "I've been in more fights than some people get into their whole _lives_."

"How old are you, anyway?" Komui questioned. Kiba's gaze shifted from side to side, a trapped look spreading across his face.

"Um…" He calculated quickly. He knew that the average lifespan of a wolf was seven to ten years… but the average human lifespan was sixty… so around six years to every human year… and he was three wolf years old… so… "Eighteen!" He concluded triumphantly. His excitement dimmed somewhat as he realized both Allen and Komui were giving him strange corner-of-the-eye looks.

"You had to _think_ about it?" Allen asked suspiciously.

"You don't look eighteen," Komui commented at the same time. Kiba shrugged at both of them, subsiding once more into sullenness.

"Anyway, good luck to both of you, and your train leaves in an hour," Komui grinned.

"Wha—!" Allen stopped halfway through his shout of outrage (he really should have been expecting this) when he realized that arguing was pointless. He seized Kiba's upper arm and hauled him out of the room, glaring daggers at Komui over his shoulders.

"Go!" Allen commanded, shoving Kiba in the direction of his room. "Throw anything that comes to hand in a suitcase and meet me by the canal in fifteen minutes! Hurry!" The white-haired exorcist tossed this last over his shoulder as he sprinted down the hallway.

Kiba stood exactly where he was, hands in his pockets, staring blankly after Allen. He was still there fifteen minutes later when the pale boy came flying back down the hall, suitcase in hand and Timcanpy fluttering erratically around his head. He skidded to a halt, abject horror on his face when he saw Kiba.

"You… you haven't moved?!" he shouted. "Do you _want_ to miss the train?!"

"…I only own one set of clothes," Kiba informed him. "And I'm wearing them."

"…R-really?" Allen stuttered. Now that he thought about it, Kiba hadn't had any luggage when they'd brought him to Headquarters for the first time… "We'll talk later, right now we need to get down to the canal!" He seized Kiba's arm and ran off, hauling the (apparently) older boy behind him. Kiba trailed behind him as they ran through the hallways, practically falling down the stairs to reach the canal in record time. Allen all but tossed Kiba and his suitcase into the boat and snatched up the punting pole, desperate.

Punting them upriver took the better part of their allotted hour. In fact, by the time Allen had leaped out and hastily moored their boat to the dock, they had a mere ten minutes to reach the train. By now Kiba had caught on to their urgency, and was a good ten yards ahead of Allen as they raced through the streets of London towards the train station, scattering other pedestrians like pigeons before them. A mournful whistle drifted over the town, signaling that their train was pulling away. They weren't even in sight of the station yet.

"We'll never… make it…!" Allen gasped between pants.

"Lunar Fang…" Kiba huffed, almost as out of breath as his companion but still much farther ahead. "Invocate…!"

There were several screams from the fleeing townsfolk as one of the running boys seemed to explode, a burst of harsh wind flinging up enough dust to dim the flash of light to a dull shine. A wolf shot out of the other side of the dust cloud, once-white fur coated with brown. Allen coughed as he, too, passed through the cloud, falling behind for a few crucial seconds. To make up for it, he threw himself into a leap, landing on a canopy above the door of a shop and using it as a step to reach the roofs, which he then began to vault over as agilely as a monkey. Overhead, Timcanpy circled and bobbed like a demented, spherical vulture.

Kiba saw Allen's leap, but did not follow. He was much faster on level ground than leaping around on peaked roofs.

_It's already leaving_, he saw as they neared the station. The last car in the train was pulling out of the arch as he watched. The wolf redoubled his efforts, gritting his teeth. _We'd need wings to get there in time! _He shut his eyes and lowered his head, his legs pounding like pistons—mechanical and tireless. He ignored the screams of various humans as he bounded through the station and onto the tracks, skidding around to charge after the departing machine, which was picking up speed now. They couldn't miss the train! This was his first mission as an exorcist… he couldn't screw things up this early! Hadn't he decided that the Black Order would be his pack? He was letting his new pack down… But how _was_ he supposed to catch this train short of flying?

He needed wings… He needed wings…

Unnoticed by Kiba, flashes of green began to appear amidst the blurred white of his churning paws. The flashes blossomed into tongues of emerald flame that flared out in the shape of wings, extending from his ankles. Suddenly, Kiba's body felt as light as air. His bounds grew longer and longer, until his paws were barely touching the earth as he flew forward. The train's caboose grew closer and closer.

A black blur fell from a metal strut on the scaffolding outside the station to land on the train's roof. A little golden speck fluttered after it. Allen and Timcanpy. They had safely boarded the train. Now it was Kiba's turn…

The wolf paused for an instant, his muscles bunching under thick, white fur. His leap carried him over the remaining distance to the balcony at the rear of the train—held in midair as if suspended on a wire before drifting down as gently as a dandelion seed.

Safely on board, the wolf turned to sniff at the wings gracing his legs. They appeared to be purely decorative, for they did not flap to hold him up, nor could he move them by willing it. Though they appeared to be made of fire, they were not hot, and didn't burn him even when he shoved his muzzle right through one. It tickled, like sticking his nose into a warm trickle of wind.

Kiba barked in delight and chased his tail around once, feeling as giddy as a pup under a full moon. His body was so light! He felt as if he could jump right up and touch the clouds.

"Kiba?" The wolf looked up to see Allen dangling from the roof of the train by one arm, looking down at him quizzically. The pale exorcist dropped to land just beside him, still looking puzzled. "Is that Innocence fire on your legs?"

"Yeah," Kiba wagged his tail in confirmation. "I think I just got a new ability. Is it normal for Innocence to do more than one thing?"

"Sort of," Allen looked thoughtful. "It must be your attack. When I activate my cross, it turns my arm into a claw, as you know. But I can also turn it into a gun and a sword, and I can use 'Cross Grave': a long-range attack. Kanda's Mugen has its illusions, and Lavi's hammer has its seals, so it's pretty normal for Innocence to have one main function and other supporting 'attacks'. You should come up with a name for it."

"Oh. I'll think about it."

"In the meantime, deactivate it," the boy ordered. "Wolves aren't exactly allowed on trains, especially not ones that are on fire. _Green_ fire. Besides, you really shouldn't be using your Innocence for such trivial things."

"Why not?" Kiba cocked his head to the side. "If it doesn't run out, and it doesn't hurt anybody to use it, why not use it whenever possible? Isn't that what it's there for?"

"Kiba…" Allen sighed. "Are you at all religious?"

"Not really," Kiba bared one fang briefly in denial.

"I wouldn't tell anyone that," Allen told him seriously. "Exorcists are also known as Apostles of God. Innocence is also called God's Crystal. Our entire war is based on sending the souls of akuma to heaven, and stopping another Biblical flood. Do you see how being nonreligious might cause a bit of a problem?"

Kiba thought this over and nodded slowly. Sure, Allen had explained the war and everything to him, but he hadn't really realized the full impact of it all yet. He had been thinking of it as a much more secular kind of war—one side looking for something, the other side disagreeing with their methods and intentions, and so a war is born. The fact that they were looking for holy artifacts or that their army was founded by the Church hadn't seemed to play into it until that moment.

Kiba realized right then that he really would have to keep his atheism quiet. He might be in for some serious trouble if his superiors found out about that. And he should thank Allen for pointing it out to him. But Kiba couldn't help but think that there was something off about the way Allen had said it…

"…You don't seem upset that I'm an atheist," the white wolf noted, hitting on the problem. "You don't want to convert me?"

"Of course not. You don't have to believe in God to help us fight," Allen blew his bangs out of his face, sounding a little offended. "Believe it or not, I don't force my religion on other people, you know."

Kiba drooped guiltily at that, remembering the many times he had insisted to people that Paradise was real, and even gotten in physical fights with anyone who told him it was a fairy tale. It was the main reason for all the hostility between him and Tsume. In fact, it was pretty much the entire reason he'd never made a single friend beyond Hige (who was far too laid-back to care whether or not his best friend was a 'religious' nut).

"Besides," Allen was continuing. "In my opinion, you'd have to be pretty stupid _not_ to believe in God—and especially to tell me you don't while you're a flaming wolf on his way to battle akuma and return a holy crystal back to Hevlaska. But my original point was that it's pretty irreverent, using sacred material to catch trains," Allen continued. "So even if you don't think of it that way, at least remember that other people do, and that if you want to stay an exorcist, you should at least pretend to believe in God."

"…I understand," Kiba dipped his head apologetically. There was a flash, and he was human once more, sprawled out on the metal balcony, head bowed. "And I'll try to respect others' beliefs in the future." He looked up at the sky, a bitter tilt to his lips. "I guess I see where those other people were coming from now…"

"What other people?" Allen was curious.

"Lots of different people," Kiba waved a hand, eyes misting over in remembrance. "I used to get in fights a lot… used to _lose_ fights a lot… because people told me what I believed in didn't exist."

"You said you didn't believe in God."

"I don't. There's more than one thing to believe in, you know."

There was nothing much to say after that. The two teens stood and collected their suitcases, sliding back the door to make their way to the compartment Komui had reserved for them. The train ride was taken in silence as they both looked over the folders containing the mission details. Allen's suspicions about Kiba's ability to read proved to be correct when the boy grudgingly admitted that he needed help. Allen obliged, reading the mission aloud.

Apparently, there was a town in Spain that was plagued by akuma. It was a fairly easy mission, perfect for Kiba's first time (or so Allen thought. Kiba's opinion on the matter was slightly different). Kiba stretched out across the seat, thought wistfully of furry bodies all curled up together in a warm, comfortable heap, and quickly fell asleep.

***

Days later, Kiba stepped off a different train, feeling the most self-conscious he'd ever felt in his life. He was wearing one of Allen's spare exorcist coats. It was too short for him in the sleeves and hem, but luckily Kiba wasn't much bigger than Allen in the shoulders, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Kiba felt like a liar for wearing the cross on his chest, not to mention he thought he looked like an absolute idiot. It was sort of military, but just clerical enough to make him uncomfortable. He was suddenly, fervently glad that none of his pack was here to see him. He might never live it down as it was.

"You look fine, stop fidgeting," Allen assured him, having noticed the teen pulling at his collar for the umpteenth time that day. Privately, he thought the older boy looked—dare he say it—_cool._ On Allen, the coat looked slightly clownish. On Kiba, it looked as officially badass as it did on Kanda, a fact the boy had always been jealous about. Not that he would ever tell either of them this. Especially not Kanda. "It's not half as bad as you're making it out to be," he insisted, banishing all such thoughts. The shoes poking out at the hems—sneakers, Kiba had called them—looked out-of-place, but that was all.

"…It's just weird," Kiba insisted, but left it at that. Allen sighed. During the entire journey by various boats and trains, Kiba had said very (_very_) little. The white-haired exorcist supposed that he was making up for having been so open on the train. Now they stepped down off the platform, looking around at the town they were there to save. Predictably, no one else had gotten off at this stop, and what they could see of the streets showed the town to be all but abandoned.

"Lead the way," Allen gestured for the wolf boy to walk ahead of him. "It's your mission, after all."

"Right," Kiba nodded. "I'll sniff around to see if there are any survivors, you follow and stay ready. Lunar Fang, invocate." The wolf lowered his head to the ground, taking a few whiffs, and set off deeper into the town, followed by Allen. They left the suitcase on a bench by the station. After all, this was a town of akuma. Who would steal it? It would just get in the way if (when) it came to a fight.

Kiba wandered through the maze of streets, trying and failing to pick up the scent of any living creature. They found more piles of empty, dust-covered clothes than either boy cared to count and even the whitening bones of several animals, but no people.

"Kiba…" there was a whirring sound as Allen's eye swirled to life, heralding the coming of akuma.

"I know," the wolf growled back. An unfamiliar scent pressed in on the canine's delicate nasal tissues, a nauseating mix of rust, decaying flesh, oil, and salt. Allen activated his arm, the white claw bursting forth in a flare of green fire. At the same time, at least ten misshapen spheres hovered into view above the roofs. Kiba gazed upon the akuma with disgust. They were just as pitiful as Allen had made them out to be—though Kanda had made it very clear that he thought they were not pitiable at all, but _vile_. Vile they were, too. All Kiba knew was that he wanted them _gone_.

"Paradise Wings!" Kiba yapped just as the akuma opened fire. He had named his Innocence's ability somewhere along the journey, after much thought. The wolf leaped into the air, held aloft by the weightlessness of his Innocence, the leap carrying him all the way to the rooftops. The wolf nimbly twisted and dodged the bullets, his paws remembering every one-sided firefight with the army that he'd escaped alive. Every move brought him closer and closer to the akuma, until he finally arced through the air to land atop one of the monsters.

The white wolf sank his teeth deeply into the thing's exterior (which tasted like rotten flesh and rusted iron). He pushed off, gliding away just as the akuma exploded. He repeated this action with the next akuma, and the next. Just as he was about to pounce on the fourth, white claws slashed through it, decimating it completely. Allen winked at Kiba as the remaining three (Allen had killed three others while Kiba was dispatching the first three) closed in, guns ready. Even more akuma appeared to reinforce them.

"They never stop coming, do they?" Kiba growled.

"Never," the corner of Allen's mouth twitched. Then they were both off, streaks of white and green and black, leaving fiery explosions in their wake. Wave after wave of akuma came, and soon enough even Kiba's paws began to feel heavy and clumsy.

"They may never stop coming," Allen said some time later, wiping a stream of blood from his face. "But there are almost never this many in one place! What were they doing here, anyway?"

"Allen," Kiba paused to sniff the air, his voice urgent, "I smell a human. Young, female. Right over… there!" The white wolf whirled around to face the rooftop adjacent to the one he and his companion stood on. A young girl with striped stockings, a lacy skirt, and a pristine blouse stepped out from behind the chimney. An umbrella topped by a pumpkin was thrown over her shoulder. Her skin was ashy grey, and seven crosses slashed across her forehead, between golden eyes and spiked-up blue-black hair.

"Rhode," Allen spat. "What are you doing here?"

"I was bored, so the Earl told me I could go have some fun in this town," she licked her lips and smirked crookedly. "It wasn't really very fun since half of them were already akuma anyway, that is, until I heard _you_ were showing up, Allen." She winked flirtatiously and eyed Allen in a way that would have even Kanda feeling ill at ease. After a moment, she seemed to notice the bristling wolf at Allen's side.

"Oh? Got yourself a new pet? Good doggie," she cooed sickeningly.

"Fuck you," Kiba snapped. "Call me a dog again and I'll tear you apart!"

"It talks!" Rhode feigned surprise. She ruined it with a giggle. "I've never seen an exorcist dog before! How nice of you, Allen, to bring me a new toy to play with."

"I didn't…" Allen began angrily.

"I'M A WOLF!" Kiba roared. His entire body shook with the force of his snarls. Rhode laughed outright.

"A strong one, eh? I'll enjoy this! So… let's see what you're afraid of, shall we?" the spiky-haired girl giggled sweetly. Without warning, the scenery around Kiba began to fade away.

Somehow, he was lying down now, and his Paradise Wings were gone. He was on a metal table, held down by leather straps across his neck and body. He remembered this… Remembered this vaulted room lit by red light… It was Jaguara's keep. And somehow, he was her prisoner again.

Kiba began to struggle against his bonds, growling. Last time he'd been half-bloodless and nearly dead. This time he would chew through these straps if he had to!

Echoing steps rebounded off the shadowed ceiling and tall windows. Kiba rolled his eye to see the girl, Rhode, stepping up to the table's side, looking disappointed.

"This is what you're scared of? Bo-ring," she sighed. "Then again, I didn't dig very hard. Let's find what you're _most_ afraid of…"

Jaguara's keep melted away, to be replaced by rolling, green hills dotted with wildflowers. There were trees in the distance, and grazing herds of deer. Kiba stood at the edge of a clear spring that welled up from an underground tunnel.

"This is what you're afraid of?" the girl looked around with a bemused expression. "I never would have thought…"

"Stop it…!" Kiba barked, looking around frantically. "Not back here!" Panic even worse than that of being restrained rose within him, nearly choking him. This was Myu's illusion. This was what he'd hallucinated while poisoned by that plant-thing he'd been trapped in on his journey to find Paradise.

Kiba nearly panicked for the second time since he'd come to this world. He didn't want to forget. This time, if he forgot his pack and his mission, nothing would bring him back. His pack was scattered, with no way of knowing if he was no longer searching for them. He didn't want to forget…

"Hello," a light, female voice greeted the wolf. Kiba turned to see a brunette wearing a yellow blouse, crouched across the spring, smiling at him. "I didn't expect to see you again! Would you like to play?"

_No…_ he thought desperately. He didn't want to play with her. Playing with Myu was almost as dangerous as playing with fire. But despite his mind's protests, his body was moving, coming around the pool to take her hand and lead her away, to where they could play together without any more interruptions… He was human again now, slipping into the role as easily as he had always slipped into his illusion. Why was that so surprising again? Kiba didn't know. He banished any doubts (where had they come from?) and smiled at the cat's illusion of a pretty brunette, ready to play.

"KIBA!" Allen's shriek shattered the illusion. In an instant, Kiba had torn himself away from the forlorn-looking feline and whirled back around to face Rhode. He was a wolf again. This was all fake, he remembered. Myu wasn't real… and his heart both hurt and rejoiced to remember that.

"Let me out of here!" he growled, preparing to spring at her and tear out her jugular.

"No, I don't think I will," she refused, as if he had just asked her if she would play with him. "In fact," she grinned wickedly, "how about I show your friend Allen all those precious little secrets you're trying to keep from him?"

"No! Don't you—!" but Allen had already appeared beside him, blinking in confusion at the serene landscape before him. "Go away!" Kiba snarled futilely at him. "Don't look!"

"Isn't what you were expecting, huh?" Rhode laughed at the exorcist's bewildered look. "It's not what I thought the big, bad wolf would be scared of, either. But apparently he's terrified to death of that little kitty over there!" she pointed. Myu edged a little closer to Kiba, whining, but Kiba warned her off with a fearsome snarl.

"This place… that cat…" he tried to explain. "They make you forget who you are, who your friends are, what you're doing, everything! It's not Paradise, not at all!" Kiba ended a little plaintively. _I wish it was…_

"Paradise?" Rhode's evil grin grew wider, and Kiba realized that he had made a huge mistake. "Do you mean the place you were following dear Cheza to?"

"Leave her out of this!" Kiba howled. Again, he was far too late, for the scenery around them had shifted once more. Now Kiba and Allen found themselves on a featureless, white plain. Facing them were two figures, one familiar, and the other not. A human Kiba cradled a girl with short, lavender hair and blood-red eyes to his chest, bleeding profusely from many wounds, his hair even more of a mess than usual. The girl's veins stood out in painful relief against her pale skin, dark green and pulsing.

"Cheza…" both Kibas whimpered. And before their very eyes, the girl dissolved, leaving only the blue blanket she had been wrapped in. Allen gasped, and the Kiba beside him whimpered again. The human Kiba clutched the blanket harder, hung his head, and let out a screaming cry. Except… the blanket… it wasn't empty… wrapped up inside it, where the girl had been…

…was a withered flower.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Rhode licked her lips, relishing Kiba's agony. "It's all your fault that poor girl died, you know. And look at you now! Not even half as torn up about it as you were then. She would be so upset to know you forgot her so quickly."

"I didn't forget!" Kiba denied.

"That's right, you're afraid of forgetting," Rhode nodded, sounding as if she had just remembered this fact. "That doesn't stop you from doing it, though, does it? Why don't you take a refresher course?" She flung out her arm, and the scene changed yet again.

Now they were on a different snowy plain. An old man in a trench coat aimed a shotgun at the chest of a young boy just a few yards away.

"No, Toboe…" Kiba moaned, unable to look away as the boy was shot, falling to stain the white snow with his red blood. He had never seen his pack's deaths. He had known they were dead, but the hows were something he wasn't present for. He didn't want to watch this…

There was another shift, and Kiba watched in horror as Blue's throat was torn out by Darcia, and a slight jump ahead to where a mortally wounded Hige pleaded with Tsume to kill him, and another shift to where Tsume's body slide sideways from his sitting position, leaving a red streak on the rock…

"And should I show Allen the best part?" Rhode cackled joyfully. "Should I tell him what you're hiding?" She raised her arm, preparing to change the illusion yet again to out Kiba's biggest secret, the one he had hidden in plain sight…

The one that would make Allen kill Kiba.

"That's enough!" a beam of red light exploded through the place Rhode had been not moments ago. The girl sailed through the air to land lightly several yards away, blinking as if wondering who had the audacity to interrupt her mental torture. Allen stood, the gun where his left arm usually was smoking a little, hatred in his eyes.

"I don't care what he's hiding!" Allen shouted angrily, to Kiba's shock. "More than that, I don't want to know! If he's hiding it, then there's a reason, and I know better than anyone what it's like to have a shameful past. What do you think gives you the right to put him—anyone—through that? As long as he's on my side, as long as he's my fellow exorcist, I won't let you betray his secrets like this."

"That's how it is, then, is it, Allen?" Rhode's face twisted with fury. The snowy field around them faded a final time to leave them back on the rooftops of the unknown Spanish town, separated by the void between buildings.

"Fine," the girl shouted petulantly, stomping one stockinged foot. Her golden eyes spit sparks at the exorcist pair. "You keep your secrets, mutt. This isn't over yet! I won't have to kill you or your little 'family'. By the time I'm through with you, your own friends will have torn you apart!" A set of double doors rose out of the shingles behind the girl. They were red edged with gold, in the shape of a heart topped by a crown. The leaves swung open, allowing the Noah of Dreams to step through into the glowing light beyond. The doors shut once she was through, and sank back to wherever they had come from.

Kiba sighed heavily and deactivated his Innocence. He needed to talk to Allen, and it would be better done face-to-face rather than face-to-kneecap. As he stood on two legs once more, he couldn't help but notice that the akuma (what few they hadn't finished off already) had vanished along with the girl.

"Allen…" he began quietly, not meeting the other exorcist's rain-colored eyes. Allen had no way of recognizing this as a sign of deference and respect, not being a wolf himself. "Thank you… for stopping her. I appreciate what you said. And… I'm sorry."

"For having secrets?" Allen's brow furrowed.

"That I'm still not going to tell you what they are."

"I didn't expect you to," Allen huffed. "A little trust would be nice, you know. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought we were becoming friends."

"…My apologies," Kiba brought his gaze up to meet Allen's once more. They were becoming friends? If so, Kiba hadn't noticed it. Then again, the same thing had happened with Hige, hadn't it? Toboe's friendship had caught him by surprise, too. He'd never had very many friends. For all he knew, that was how it went.

"But… about what she did show us…" Allen hesitated. "Where they your family?"

"Yes," Kiba answered curtly, his mind dragged back to the horrible visions. He didn't want to think about them. Didn't want to think about finding Toboe's poor, crumpled body in the bloody snow…

"One of them was a dog—the one that was killed by the wolf," Allen pointed out. Kiba's eyes widened. So used to both forms of his pack members was he that he hadn't even noticed that Blue had been a dog at the time… or that Allen had seen her and Darcia.

"Her name is Blue," he replied. "She's a different kind of family." Different from Tsume, Hige, and Toboe, who had followed him into the wilderness despite their misgivings in search of Paradise… different from their bonds of shared danger and united desire…

"I see," Allen misinterpreted his words, just as he had planned, assuming that Kiba meant she was the family pet or somesuch thing. "If you don't mind my asking… how… what killed them all?"

"Toboe, shot by the man sworn to kill our whole family except Blue… because Toboe had promised Blue to protect _him_," Kiba related bitterly. "Blue, apparently mauled by that wolf. Hige, mortally injured by the same wolf and apparently killed at his request by Tsume so that he didn't suffer. Tsume, killed by the same wolf as before. I wasn't there for their deaths. I just found out the specifics myself…"

"I'm sorry," Allen sympathized. "You shouldn't have found out like that, if ever. What happened to the wolf?"

"It died," Kiba shrugged. "I passed out after that, and when I woke up I was lost and my family was gone. If I survived, they must have, too. So I'll find them, wherever they are."

"I'll keep a lookout, too, now that I know what they look like," Allen promised.

"Thank you."

"What are friends for?" the exorcist smiled. With tacit agreement that the conversation was over, the two boys turned and jumped down to the ground, beginning to walk in the direction of the train station and their abandoned luggage.

As they walked, Allen thought of the girl who had become a flower. Obviously (to him, anyway) it had something to do with Innocence, since normal people as a general rule did not turn into flowers. Perhaps the girl had been an exorcist? He'd never heard of Innocence transforming the bodies of the dead… and Kiba had clearly known her well, and he hadn't known the Order existed until he had met Allen. So maybe the Innocence had been the wolf…?

Allen stopped. That was it! The wolf must have been someone with a transformation-type Innocence like Kiba! But if that was the case, how had it died?

_This guy gets more and more mysterious with every thing he actually tells me about himself,_ Allen thought ruefully.

"Hey," Kiba said. He, too, had stopped and turned, wondering what the holdup was.

"Coming!" Allen dragged his attention back to the present, hurrying to catch up with his friend. They were not going to chase down another train any time soon.


	5. Chapter 5

**Kitty: Totally not worth the wait, I know. I'm sorry. I absolutely hate this chapter, but nothing I do to it makes me like it any more, so I've been stalling putting it up…**

**Toboe: At least you finally figured out the timeline, right?**

**Kitty: Yeah, there's that. DO NOT SKIP THIS PART OF THE A/N. I placed this fic very close to the beginning of the manga, actually. It's just after Allen and Lavi discover Krory while searching for Cross, but it's slightly AU in the fact that they then bring him back to Headquarters for training, temporarily abandoning the search for Cross, and Kanda hasn't left for his own search yet. It's while Krory is being trained that they find Kiba. Don't worry, it eventually returns to canon—though don't worry about that, either. It's not going to be a re-telling of the manga with Kiba in the corner just to be there. In summary: at this point, they know about the Noah and they know that the Noah are searching for the Heart, but the only Noah they've met is Rhode. Allen hasn't achieved Crown Clown yet, and Kanda's only ever used his first illusion. YOU MAY SKIP THE REST OF THE A/N IF YOU SO CHOOSE.**

**Toboe: YearOfTheKitty doesn't own -Man or Wolf's Rain, and she would like me to point out that if she did, this chapter wouldn't be as terrible as it is and she wouldn't have to humbly beg forgiveness.**

**Kitty: And that about sums it up. Enjoy to the best of your ability.**

*******

**Chapter Five**

"_You should know that your lies won't hide your flaws."_

_--Seether, 'Fake It'_

Allen and Kiba returned to the Order to find headquarters in chaos. People everywhere were running and screaming, and explosions rocked the building every few seconds. Kiba, alarmed, prepared to invocate, but was stopped by Allen's long-suffering sigh.

"Another Komlin," the white-haired exorcist groaned. Then, to Kiba, "Komui makes these robots, all called Komlin, and every single one of them goes berserk and nearly kills everyone. Well, except for those few that he uses for insane reasons that force us to destroy them. The problem is that Komui does everything he can to make sure we don't destroy them. He loves them almost as much as he loves Lenalee."

Kiba nodded. "They're robots?" Robots, he understood. He'd destroyed robots before. He could do it again.

"Yep."

"Lunar Fang, invocate," Kiba commanded. The white wolf raced off through the stone corridors, going for the source of the explosions. He didn't use Paradise Wings. There was no need for it, since he had reached the central shaft of the building within moments. The entirety of the science branch was huddled on the floating elevator, surrounding a hog-tied, wailing Komui. A giant robot stood on the walkway, looking as if it were attempting to reach the scientists. One of the scientists noticed the entrance of the white canine, and began yelling.

"Kiba, quickly, get over here before it sees you!" But the shout drew the machine's attention, and the rectangular head (sporting a jaunty beret) swiveled towards the pale quadruped. As soon as it moved, Kiba was off like a shot, leaping into the air and easily landing on the robot's shoulders. The wolf crunched his jaws into the thin neck in a move perfected by years of hunting, twisting his head as he brought it up in a neck-breaking movement that severed the wires. Sparks flew. Kiba leaped clear as it collapsed to the ground, deactivating his Innocence in midair so that he landed easily on two feet.

"KOMLIN!" Komui's wails redoubled in intensity as well as volume.

"Wow…" Allen had arrived unnoticed, just in time to see Kiba finish Komlin off. "How did you know its weak point just seconds after seeing it?"

"I didn't," Kiba shrugged. "I just went for the part my teeth could get through the most easily."

"Good work!" the scientists preformed a mass exodus of the elevator to gather around the boy and congratulate him loudly. Kiba, wincing as someone landed a particularly hard slap on his back, wondered exactly how hard these things were to disable if taking down _one_ of them resulted in such an uproar.

"That was so cool!" A familiar one-eyed redhead wiggled his way through the crowd to latch onto Kiba's arm like a limpet. "Be a dog again!" Lavi begged. "Please? Pleeeeease?"

Kiba's eyes shifted left and right, but there was no escape from Lavi's whining. Soon all the scientists were repeating his pleas, shouting encouragement, and generally begging for Kiba to wolf out again. "…Fine…"

"Yes!" Lavi punched the air triumphantly. "Thank you so much!" Then, to Kiba's bewilderment, the redheaded teen whipped out a pad of paper and a pen, gazing at Kiba raptly.

"Lu-Lunar Fang…" Kiba murmured, his hand going up to his pendant. "Invocate." The first thing Kiba saw as his eyes cleared was Lavi scribbling frantically on his paper, like a student racing to finish an essay in time. The redhead dropped to his knees beside the white wolf, ran his hands through his fur, studied the now-dormant necklace intently, and wrote more on his paper. Eventually, the other scientists drifted off to do whatever they did when not cowering in fear from Komlin, dragging Komui behind them.

"What are you doing?" Kiba finally ventured.

"Oh?" Lavi blinked, looking like he had forgotten that Kiba was actually a living person. "Oh. The old Panda told me to study this new transformation-Innocence. It's really, really cool! And you're such a good doggie!" Lavi patted Kiba's head, beaming obliviously. A moment later, the boy yelped with pain, whipping his nipped hand away from the irritated wolf.

"Ow! Hey! I was joking!" Lavi protested. "Seriously, though, I have to research this, so…" He picked up his pen and began to write once more. "It's interesting that you can still talk while in that form, since one would think your vocal chords would have changed as well."

"…" Kiba, once more, held an internal battle as to whether or not he should say that all wolves could talk anyway. Just as always, his sense of self-preservation beat down the urge to tell all. "…I have another ability, too."

"Really?" Lavi looked up, interested. "What is it? Can you use it for me?"

"Paradise Wings," Kiba said. The green fire bloomed around his ankles, and Lavi leaned so close that Kiba could feel his breath on his leg.

"Amazing…" Lavi whispered. "What abilities do they give you?"

"Speed." Kiba streaked around the circular walkway in less than a second, the wind of his passing yanking at Lavi's hair and scarf. "Agility." Kiba did another circuit, zigzagging back and forth as if on a slalom course, the maneuver barely slowing him at all. "And floating." Kiba leaped over the railing, gliding gently to the elevator in the center as if swimming through water instead of jumping through air.

"The floating thing reminds me of Lenalee's Dark Boots," Lavi muttered as he took notes like his life depended on it. "Though her agility is natural talent, and you don't seem to land as hard as she does…"

"If we're done here, Kiba and I kind of have a report we need to give Komui," the largely-forgotten Allen interjected. Lavi waved them away with a nod and a 'hmm', still bent over his notepad. Kiba shrugged, deactivated his Innocence, and followed Allen to Komui's office.

Lavi watched them go with a single gleaming eye. He looked back down at his notes, sighing heavily. He didn't like this. Didn't like it at all. It was one thing to say 'well, we still don't know much about Innocence', but writing it off like Komui wanted to just didn't seem wise. After all, the problem didn't seem to be in the Innocence, but in Kiba himself. Allen didn't see human souls unless they were chained to an akuma, and he never saw animal ones (for that matter, did animals even have souls? That area of study was just as sketchy as Innocence…). The whole thing smacked of something unnatural… but how was it possible that Kiba had had the soul of another being chained to him without noticing it?

The single eye narrowed. Unless, that is, there was something he wasn't telling them… The redhead stood abruptly and strode away in the direction of the library. He had to get these notes back before the old man really did explode.

***

Getting through the outer lab was like an obstacle course of its own, what with all the scientists hailing Kiba as a hero. Finally, he made it to the door while Allen, behind him, held off the masses. One pale hand pushed it open.

"YOU!" Kiba dodged to the side as something whizzed past his ear. He had no time to turn and see what it was before something else (a paperweight this time) was lobbed at his face. Komui drew his arm back in preparation for hurling a mug that had previously been holding a mixed assortment of pens (which were now scattered all over the floor) at Kiba, yelling all the while. "YOU KILLED MY PRECIOUS KOMLIN, YOU MURDERING VAGRANT!"

_That again?_ Kiba groaned internally at the nickname, jumping to the side so as to avoid the mug. He wasn't, however, fast enough to dodge the next mug that struck him full in the face. There was a crack from both mug and Kiba's nose, and cold coffee dribbled down his front. The wolf-boy prodded his nose gingerly, wincing as the finger came away slick with blood.

"Supervisor!" Allen cried in outrage. "That's enough! Look what you did, you broke his nose!"

"Serves him right for hurting my dear Komlin," Komui muttered sulkily, with just a hint of contrition. He didn't throw anything else.

"Here," Allen sighed and handed over their report. "Come on, Kiba, I'll take you down to the infirmary. Tilt your head back; I think that's supposed to stop the bleeding." Kiba did as told, staring at the ceiling as Allen guided him with a hand on his elbow. The messy-haired teenager felt like an absolute idiot as he fumbled after his friend, unable to see where he was going. He bet that the entire Order was laughing at him as he passed, just below his field of vision. Allen guided him well, and the few times he did stumble it was because he tripped over his own feet, or over Allen's.

"What's this?" a sharp voice demanded when Allen pushed open the door to what he claimed was the infirmary.

"The Supervisor broke Kiba's nose," Allen related tiredly.

"Let me see," the woman seized Kiba's chin and turned his face to hers, squinting at the nose critically. "That must have been some hit," she commented.

"He threw a ceramic mug at him," Allen told her. "The mug broke."

"You must have an extremely hard face, young man," the woman remained completely straight-faced, but Kiba got the impression that she was teasing him. "This will hurt," was all the warning she gave before reaching up and twisting Kiba's broken nose around. The boy yelped, reflexive tears stinging his eyes, and leaped back.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"Do you want it to heal straight or not?" the nurse shot back. "A lump in a nose that big would most certainly not go unnoticed. It should be hurting a bit less, as well." Now that she mentioned it, the pain had dulled to a throb. He tried twitching it, but stopped when white spots burst before his eyes. "Now just don't touch it for a while and it'll soon be right as rain."

"…Thank you," he muttered after a moment.

"It's my job," was the nurse's reply as she turned to bustle away deeper into the infirmary. Allen held the door open for Kiba and let it swing shut behind them as they set off in the direction of the cafeteria. (Or, Allen set off and Kiba followed.)

"…Is my nose big?" The quiet voice didn't startle Allen so much as the question itself. Kiba had never struck Allen as vain, or even vaguely concerned with his appearance (case in point: his hair).

"N-no…" Allen half-lied. "Alright, it's kinda long and pointy… but it's not big."

"Oh." Kiba fell silent. Allen had been right. He _wasn't_ concerned with his appearance, though he had begun to think that, as a human, he should be a little _more_ concerned. The hair thing had begun it, the nickname had furthered it, and the nose comment and subsequent evasion had clinched it.

Kiba made an ugly human.

The black-haired boy sat down at a table while he waited for Allen to order his usual mountain of food. The idea of ugliness bothered him more than it should. There was no one around he was trying to impress, after all. No one whose opinion he really cared about, either. Unless, of course, you counted Allen, but Kiba _didn't_ count him, since (though the boy was his friend) he had only met him a few weeks ago.

It was all just plain stupid, Kiba thought as he glowered at the table, hunched over. Why should he give a crap how he looked? Well, since he was a human now there was a certain degree of concern required to be socially acceptable… but once that minimum was reached, what did he care if he was good-looking or not?

"Kiba," Allen's voice broke him out of his reverie. Blue eyes rose to meet shrewd gray ones.

"Kiba, you aren't eating anything," Allen said.

"Not hungry," Kiba muttered.

"You never are," Allen frowned, sounding worried. "Kiba, what's wrong? I don't think I've seen you eat a single bite in—how long has it been now? I haven't seen you eat in all the time I've known you."

"That's only been a few weeks," Kiba told him. Truthfully, a few times during the trip to and from Spain, Kiba had snuck out at night and hunted as a wolf. Allen smacked the table with his open palm, clearly upset.

"How the hell are you not eating for weeks on end?" he exclaimed. "And why the hell would you do that? You've got to eat _something_!"

"Just because you eat enough to feed a fucking refugee camp doesn't mean everyone else has to, beansprout."

"Hello to you too, Kanda," Allen said through teeth gritted into a smile. "It's one thing to not eat very much, but it's another thing entirely to eat nothing at all!"

"The vagrant's anorexic?" Kanda quipped. "What a girl."

"That's rich, coming from you," Allen snapped.

"What's that supposed to mean?" a vein in Kanda's forehead popped.

"Exactly what I said."

"Che. Whatever." Kanda turned away, for once unwilling to start a fight. He was hungry. Though even his hunger couldn't make him resist a parting shot over his shoulder as he left. "You've got blood all over your face, vagrant."

Kiba hurriedly scrubbed at his face all around his tender nose, hoping nobody else had noticed. It was one thing to be covered in blood after a big fight, or to have a visible battle scar (here Kiba's thoughts flew to Tsume), and another thing entirely to walk around advertising that you got hit in the face with a coffee cup when your superior threw a temper tantrum.

Tsume… Kiba blinked, surprised to find his heart twanging at the thought. He… actually missed that self-righteous ass. Life just didn't seem the same without fighting over every decision he had to make. With the clarity of hindsight, Kiba knew that those fights had kept him at least somewhat honest. He actually missed Tsume.

"I'm going." Kiba stood suddenly and left, ignoring Allen's surprised stare (the boy could say nothing since his mouth was stuffed full of food). Kiba cursed as he walked. He was acting so weirdly today… what was up with him? First the nose thing and then that brain malfunction with Tsume… Maybe there was something in the water…

It was as he passed a window and looked out on the darkening sky, a few early stars twinkling in the wash of light that he remembered.

It was the new moon tonight. _That_ was why he'd been feeling so out of sorts lately. The teen turned away from the window with a sigh of relief. He'd been worried it was something more than that. As he continued on, he knocked into Lenalee, who was coming the other way.

"Watch it!" she snapped angrily. Kiba said nothing, surprised at the sharp tone from the usually polite girl. Sure enough, a moment later, all the anger drained out of her. Lenalee smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap. It's just… one of those days, you know?"

"It is, isn't it?" Kiba muttered. He continued down the hall, leaving Lenalee confused and wondering if she'd missed something.


	6. Chapter 6

**Kitty: Um… hey guys. How've the last five months been to you…? ^^" I'm soooooo sorry it's been so long. And I'm even sorrier to say that this doesn't ncecessarily mean this fic is off hiatus. I just felt guilty for leaving you all hanging (and for some reason, this fic has had an upswing in popularity recently). I MIGHT write more soon, since I finished one of the other two fics I was focusing on…**

**Toboe: In the meantime, please enjoy this chapter! …Oh, and YearoftheKitty doesn't own Wolf's Rain or -Man!**

**Kitty: Good boy. –pets- Enjoy!**

***

**Chapter Six**

"_So what if you can see the darkest side of me?_

_No one could ever change this animal I have become."_

—_Three Days' Grace, 'Animal I Have Become'_

Time passed, as time is wont to do. Kiba discovered, to his chagrin, that his odd thoughts did _not_ go away as the moon waxed. To the contrary, they seemed to grow in strength and mutate beyond their original forms the longer he left them alone. Concern over his appearance slowly turned into acute longing for his original body. Missing Tsume expanded to encompass missing Toboe, Hige, Cheza, and Blue as well—to the point where it toed the line between 'homesickness' and just plain 'loneliness'.

These thoughts took over Kiba's mind. His tentative forays into loquaciousness were cut off short, leaving him as good as mute, which, in turn, all but severed the fragile bonds of friendship he'd begun to weave with the other exorcists. He invocated Lunar Fang whenever possible, using the excuse of 'training' when he was between missions (which he now undertook with a variety of different partners, since he was not trusted yet to go alone). His human appearance went straight to hell in the meantime.

Allen, Lenalee, and even _Lavi_ had tried to talk to Kiba about it, but he refuted every attempt at discussing it. The mystery of what the wolf-boy sustained himself with, since no one had yet seen him eat a single bite, remained unsolved.

Or, it did until a day just like any other, when Lavi picked up a newspaper. He was in the library with his mentor, looking over a series of different newspapers in various languages. The one the redhead had chosen was in English—the London Times, to be exact. His eye skimmed swiftly over the headlines, memorizing the news contained within with apparent ease. He ruffled idly through the pages, not searching for anything in particular.

One page, though, caught his attention. The junior Bookman paused in his memorization, eye narrowing. He read the article again, unnecessarily. He had understood it perfectly the first time.

"Hey, gramps," Lavi jolted to his feet, already moving towards the door as he spoke. "I'll be right back. I found something important." Bookman's irritated shouts were wasted on his apprentice, who merely sprinted away, newspaper crumpled in his hand.

The one-eyed exorcist was brought to a halt several hallways away by a sudden impact with something going in the opposite direction. The redhead sprawled forward, his face saved from an unfortunate collision with the stone floor by something soft and fabric-covered beneath him. When the metaphorical dust cloud in Lavi's head had cleared, he pushed himself up a bit, blinking perplexedly as his gaze met two round, gray objects.

A moment later, it came to him. Lavi grinned wickedly.

"Heya, beansprout. Fancy meeting you here."

"Lavi," Allen greeted with barely-concealed discomfort. "…Could you get off of me, please?"

"No, you're just the man I wanted to see," the emerald-eyed teen shook his head cheerfully. "I can't pass up a captive audience like this."

"What is it?" Allen blinked, curious. Lavi sobered a bit, his grin fading into a mere memory.

"It's about the vagrant. Look what I found." He finally climbed off of the poor boy, shoving the newspaper into his scarred face. Allen obediently took the crumpled paper, reading the indicated article. His face remained blank for a few moments before he looked up in shock.

"You don't think…?"

"I do," Lavi was grim.

"Well, then," Allen's mouth pulled downwards into a scowl. "We'd better go straighten this out."

They found Kiba in his room. It had taken twice as long to get there as it should have, since only Allen had ever been there before, and his sense of direction was as terrible as ever. Lavi pounded loudly on the door until it cracked open, revealing a single aquamarine eye and a slice of black tangles. Kiba said nothing, but still somehow managed to convey that he did not appreciate their presence.

"We need to talk," Allen wedged his hand into the crack and forced the door open further, shoving his way inside. It wasn't his way to be so rude, but he was _mad_. Lavi slipped in after him, shutting the door and gazing in shock at Kiba's room.

It was like a prison cell. There was a single bed in the corner, a wardrobe in the corner opposite, and absolutely nothing else. Not even curtains on the window.

"What?" Kiba finally, grudgingly, spoke.

"This," Allen thrust the newspaper into Kiba's face, folded over so that a single headline showed:

MYSTERIOUS ATTACKS AROUND LONDON THE WORK OF A WOLF?

The article went on to detail a series of claims from various farmers about their livestock being carried off by some sort of wild animal. The beast always took one of the farmer's animals, usually a pig or sheep, at the same time every few days, and never from the same farm twice. What had everyone baffled was that no hunting party had ever found its lair, though it had to be somewhere nearby because it only took from farms in a certain area. Most mysteriously, the beast seemed to know it would be tracked, and had covered its trail at first clumsily, but with increasing expertise.

"'A hunting party discovered the hidden remains of a sheep last night,'" Allen quoted bitterly. "'The bones appeared to have been gnawed on by a kind of canine, most likely a wolf.' So, Kiba," Allen's voice was as sharp as Kanda's Mugen, "what exactly have you been eating all this time?"

"…" Kiba looked away, neither confirming nor denying it.

"Look at me!" Allen raged. Kiba didn't move. "What has gotten into you lately? You don't speak, you don't eat, you're obsessed with this training of yours, and you look like hell warmed over!"

"We're worried about you," Lavi interjected, serious for once. "Lenalee's been beside herself, you know."

"She shouldn't," Kiba finally muttered.

"Why not? Because there's nothing to worry about?" Allen snorted. "Face it, you're a wreck, Kiba."

"…I'm a stranger," Kiba got his meaning across in as few words as possible.

"Because you said practically a total of three sentences to her and then clammed up for about a month afterwards," Lavi pointed out.

"We're your friends, Kiba," Allen said desperately. "Tell us what's wrong, or we can't help!"

"I'm fine," Kiba insisted.

"Look, I don't care what kind of emotional breakdown you're having, you can't turn into a wolf and go slaughtering farmers' livestock!" Allen cried. "That's their livelihood, not to mention disgusting! Why would you do that when there's a cafeteria downstairs just waiting to cook you whatever you want?"

"Food is nasty," Kiba scrunched up his nose. It had long since healed, but the doubts breaking it had instilled still remained.

"Lavi," Allen turned to the redhead helplessly. "Is it possible for Innocence to take over someone, or influence them?"

"Not in anything I've ever read," Lavi shook his head. "It shouldn't have a will of its own; it's a crystal! Though, we don't know much about transformation Innocence… it's entirely possible that every time he uses it, it leaves a little of its power behind in his body," Lavi theorized rapidly, the wheels in his head spinning into overdrive. "And that power could cause some of his behavior or appearance to remain like that of a wolf."

"That sounds likely," Allen turned back to Kiba. Kiba said nothing throughout Lavi's explanation, though he knew that nothing of the sort was happening. It was easier to let them think he was being influenced by Innocence than to explain that he was _tired_ of being a human already, that he wanted to be a _wolf_ again. And not a super-powered Innocence-wolf, a _real_ wolf. No fire, no floating, just the freedom of the body he was born with and his pack around him.

His pack. He missed them. He missed them so much that it was almost like they really were his family, like he had lived his whole life with them. The Order was alright, and the people in it were tolerable, but none of them was anywhere close to being a replacement for his pack. When he was awake, his thoughts were full of his memories of them, and when he was asleep, he ran with them once more in search of a legend.

Predictably, Allen and Lavi dragged him to Komui. The Supervisor (who had grown to dislike Kiba for the bad influence he had on Lenalee, and the worry he caused her) ran every test he could think of on the raven-haired boy, and none of them found anything out of the ordinary. Bookman was called in as well, but even he could shed no light on the situation. Everyone agreed that, again, Innocence was a thing nobody really understood, and that it was entirely possible that it was still affecting him.

Kiba remained silent through it all, until Komui and Bookman jointly agreed that it would be in everyone's best interest if Lavi were assigned to guard Kiba to make sure he didn't 'lose control' of his Innocence as well as to record more details on it.

"No!" Kiba barked, making everyone jump. It was the loudest he had spoken in weeks. His eyes blazed.

"It's not up for debate," Komui told him sternly. "Lavi will watch you, and you will do as he says. That is an order."

"No!" Kiba repeated.

"Lavi, make sure he eats _normal_ food from now on," Komui instructed. Lavi nodded, his face determined.

"No!" Kiba growled again. This was… ridiculous! Unfair! Embarrassing! He didn't need a babysitter, and he definitely didn't need to eat that disgusting slop that humans called food! He'd starve first.

"I told you, we aren't debating this," Komui's voice was hard. Maybe with this, Lenalee would finally stop worrying. "You can go now." A dismissal. Kiba turned on his heel and stormed out in a black fury. He just didn't have it in him to disobey a direct order. His instincts (unconditional obedience to the leader of the pack) were too deeply ingrained into him. Still, his wild hair practically curled even more with the force of his indignation at being treated like a wayward pup. His legendary pride was bellowing like a dying bison at this mortal insult.

"Have you… um… _eaten_ today?" Lavi asked. The redhead had, of course, hurried after him, and now was practically running to keep up with the angry teen's stride. Kiba growled deep in his throat as an answer.

"I'm guessing that's a no," the one-eyed youth said cheerfully. "Come on, let's go down to the cafeteria. Trust me, Jerry could cook _worms_ and they'd be better than raw sheep." Kiba wanted nothing more than to return to his room and lock the annoying apprentice Bookman out, but Komui (the alpha of the Order, as it was) had said he had to do what Lavi told him. So, with another inarticulate growl, he stomped off in the direction of the cafeteria, trailing Lavi like a brightly-colored shadow.

"Well, this is something you don't see every day," Kanda drawled. He had just finished his lunch of soba when Kiba and Lavi entered the cafeteria. "The vagrant actually coming to eat something." Kiba shoved past him wordlessly, profound disgust etched on his face. Kanda turned to the idiot rabbit. "What's with him?"

"His Innocence is making him act wolfish," Lavi hurriedly explained. "He's been eating sheep and pigs. I'm supposed to watch him to make sure he doesn't lose control over it and to make him eat normal food. Gotta run, before he gives me the slip!" Kanda blinked and Lavi was gone. The swordsman exited the room, shaking his head and muttering about idiot rabbits and wolves.

"Good, you're still here," Lavi smiled as he sat across from Kiba, who had already received his food from Jerry. The cook had been absolutely delighted to see Kiba finally eating something. To the junior Bookman's shock, he was calmly eating it as if he hadn't been calling it nasty just minutes ago. "I was afraid you'd run off as soon as my back was… turned…" Lavi trailed off as he noticed exactly what it was that Kiba was eating.

The tangle-haired exorcist smirked wickedly at the flabbergasted Lavi and took another bite of his steak tartare.

This was war.

***

Over the course of the next few days, Kiba tried every trick in the book to outsmart Lavi at his own game. He ate raw meat whenever he could get away with it (i.e. whenever he could manage to order it from Jerry without Lavi intervening). He refused to brush his hair on the grounds that he didn't own a brush or comb. He growled and snarled when he was angry, and slept curled in a ball in a nest of blankets (while Lavi slept on a cot he'd dragged into Kiba's room).

Lavi's blood pressure rose by almost half in those few days.

"He's going to be the death of me, one of these days, I swear," the redhead complained to Allen at one point as he waited in the hallway outside the bathroom, waiting for Kiba. "He ate a cooked chicken the other day, but then he started gnawing on the bones and trying to suck out the marrow! It's like he's _trying_ to give me a heart attack!"

"He _is_," Allen pointed out. "If you want, I could watch him for a while and you could take a break."

"Don't tempt me!" Lavi gripped his temples. "I want to—I _really_ want to!—but you don't have Bookman training. You can't take the notes I can."

"Why do you still have to take notes if we know he's only acting like this to annoy you?" Allen wanted to know.

"Because he might _not_ be," Lavi sighed. "The only evidence we've got that he's screwing with me is how creative he's being in his ways around mine and Komui's orders, and that might just be the Innocence making him act wolfish again."

"How so?"

"He treats Komui like the alpha wolf, the leader of the pack," Lavi related tiredly. "And he treats me like the beta, the second-in-command. It's possible he's asserting his own desires while simultaneously obeying us, just like subservient wolves have to. So for all we know, he's getting _worse_ and the only way we'll find out is when he starts marking his territory." Lavi heaved another sigh. "You know what we need? A mission. A long, distracting mission. Maybe once we're out of headquarters, it'll be easier to tell if his Innocence is possessing him or if he's just being a smartass."

"Komui just gave me a mission. We could ask if you and Kiba could tag along," Allen offered.

"That'd be great! Thank you so much, beansprout!" Lavi rushed off to Komui's office, heedless of the outraged shouts behind him. Komui agreed that a mission might be just the thing to figure out what was going on with Kiba, and agreed wholeheartedly to let them go with Allen. Anything to get that rain cloud out of Headquarters.

Which was how, hours later, Kiba found himself in a private compartment on a train bound for the coast, where they would take a boat to Ireland.

And he was a wolf.

Kiba was under strict orders that he was, under no circumstances, to use Paradise Wings. However, in order to make sure no akuma would attack him and force him to fight, he was disguised as Lavi's pet dog, complete with collar, tag bearing the name 'Killer', and (the ultimate injustice) a leash. Needless to say, Kiba was not speaking to either Lavi or Allen (not that they could really tell) and snapped (literally) at them if they got anywhere near him.

"Aw come on, _Killer_," Lavi pleaded, unable to restrain a few giggles. "It's not that bad, is it?" Kiba lifted his lip to show Lavi a fang, and the redhead shut up. It was a tense train ride. When they finally got off to board the boat, Kiba was practically shaking with humiliation at being forced to walk at Lavi's side like a true pet. The next time he saw Toboe or Blue, he was going to _murder_ them for ever having put up with this.

The boat ride was a bit better than the train ride, since Kiba quickly discovered that practically everyone on the boat was absolutely terrified of him. Spitefully, he brushed up against as many legs as he could, sniffing them all loudly and licking his lips. It never failed to make them sweat and shake. It cheered him immensely. That is, until Lavi forced him to 'heel' and he was right back to hating everything.

"Finally!" Allen practically threw himself overboard in his eagerness to get off the boat when they had docked. Lavi was too tired to agree, trudging down the gangplank with a big, white ball of spite-on-a-leash beside him.

"What's this mission again?" he asked when they had left the docks and entered the city proper.

"Um, let's see," Allen gazed upwards, tapping his chin. "Oh, yeah! There's a rumor around these parts that a kid playing around in the woods found the Lia Fàil."

"What's that?" Kiba was forced into speech when Lavi nodded in understanding.

"A Celtic myth," Lavi explained, pleased that the wolf was talking. "It's supposedly a rock that screams in the presence of a true king or queen."

"I don't know about the true king or queen part," Allen put in. "But people around here say that it screams whenever someone walks past, and you can hear it all the way from the docks. The Finder confirmed that screams can be heard from the city, and every time a scream is heard, a new traveler comes out of the woods saying that he found the Lia Fàil."

"Should be easy," Lavi commented. "Rocks aren't exactly known for their elusive nature."

Kiba attracted some strange looks at they walked through the city, and people stayed well clear of him. Lavi and Allen were equally relieved when they finally reached the woods on the other side of town that the Lia Fàil was supposed to be in. Allen made the mistake of asking if Kiba could sniff it out, which drew a scathing look from the wolf and a roll of the eye from Lavi. The pale exorcist belatedly realized that a rock with Innocence in it probably wouldn't smell any different from a normal rock, if rocks had a smell at all in the first place. His blush didn't subside for quite a while after that one.

So the two boys and one wolf began their search. At every step, Kiba half-expected a scream to issue from the nearest pebble. It made him jumpier than he cared to admit. However, even after hours of looking and turning over what felt like every rock in the forest, they still hadn't found the Innocence.

"I don't understand!" Allen kept saying. "The Finder said it was right around here! Could someone have gotten here before us and taken it?"

"Could the Finder have gotten the location wrong?" Lavi asked.

"You'd better hope he didn't," Allen said grimly. "Or we really _will_ have to turn over every rock in this forest." Lavi shuddered and reached for another pebble.

Everyone froze as a scream split the quiet air, birds taking flight in noisy alarm.

"That didn't sound like it came from the rock…" Lavi was confused.

"Over there!" Allen shouted, flinging out an arm to point. "Akuma! They must be attacking someone!" He and Lavi took off running, leaving Kiba to gallop after them, trailing his leash in the dirt. Allen activated his arm and Lavi did the same with his hammer.

"Remember, Kiba, you can't fight!" Lavi called over his shoulder just as they burst from the trees into a clearing. There, in the center of the clearing, was a boulder carved with four concentric circles. Crouched next to it was a young boy with his hands over his head, screaming as seven akuma circled around him. Allen and Lavi leaped into battle. Kiba rushed towards the boy, thinking to get him to safety since he couldn't help fight.

He hadn't gotten two steps before a familiar scent assaulted his nose. All thoughts of not fighting flew out of his head. As a matter of fact, pretty much every thought beyond the need to utterly destroy the akuma flew out of his head. Because that wasn't just any boy they were attacking

That was Toboe.


	7. Chapter 7

**Kitty: …Yikes. Wow. You're all right, that was a pretty evil cliffie, huh? Especially since you've all been begging for Toboe pretty much from chapter one… ^^"**

**Toboe: They have?! O.O Thank you!**

**Kitty: So, yeah. Here's an update which doesn't really end on a cliffie. So…**

**Toboe: Oh, right. YearoftheKitty doesn't own Wolf's Rain or -Man! Enjoy!**

***

**Chapter Seven**

"_You found me when no one else was looking_

_How did you know just where I would be?_

_You broke through all of my confusion_

_You upset my doubts, and you still didn't leave."_

—_Kelly Clarkson, 'You Found Me'_

Kiba didn't even bother to use Paradise Wings before leaping upon the nearest demon and sinking his jaws into it. He fought like a thing possessed, not letting a single akuma so much as think about opening fire on Toboe, who was still huddled in a frightened ball on the ground. As Kiba fought, a fierce joy filled him. He had found his pack. He had found Toboe. He wasn't alone anymore. And he was sure as hell not letting these filthy monsters take his family from him again.

The last akuma burst in a conflagration of smoke and fire. Kiba landed gracefully on the grass, ignoring both Allen and Lavi as they drew breath to yell at him. The white wolf deactivated his Innocence and ran over to the prone form of Toboe, calling out.

"Toboe! Toboe, are you hurt? It's me, Toboe!"

"Kiba?" Toboe slowly uncurled from his fetal position, raising wide, honey-colored eyes to meet Kiba's blue ones.

"Kiba!" Toboe threw himself forward, squeezing Kiba's stomach as hard as he could (he was still on his knees, while Kiba was standing) and blinking back tears. "I was so scared, Kiba! I thought you were dead! Where is Tsume? And Hige and Blue and Cheza? Are they okay? Where have you been? What were those things?"

"Later, Toboe," Kiba ordered. The younger (ex-) wolf drew back, finally noticing the presence of two other black-robed figures. Toboe held back a whimper, scooting half-behind Kiba in fright. One had a grossly disproportionate clawed arm, and the other wielded a hammer around the size of a small house. Both were staring at him.

"Who is this?" the one with the hammer questioned.

"This is Toboe," Kiba replied. "Toboe, these are Lavi and Allen."

"But what about Tsume and the others?" Toboe cried. Had Kiba just replaced them?

_No, Kiba would never do that!_

"I'm still looking, but I haven't found them," Kiba shook his head somberly. Toboe calmed. _See? I knew it._ "But I found you." He squeezed the copper-haired boy's shoulders and smiled a little. Toboe beamed, delighted at Kiba's unusual display of emotion.

"Kiba," Lavi's voice cut sternly through the moment. "How do you know him and who is he?"

"I told you, he's Toboe," Kiba repeated tersely. "He's my younger brother." Toboe paused before nodding rapidly. He didn't know why Kiba was lying, but he trusted him completely. It wasn't much of a stretch anyway—the whole pack had mostly treated Toboe like a little brother from the get-go, and he looked up to them like big brothers in his turn. Even Hige. (Or perhaps _especially_ Hige.)

"He doesn't look like you," Allen observed.

"I take after our mom," Toboe interjected. He glanced at Kiba, gratified by the look of approval in his eyes. His eyes wandered down slightly, sweeping incredulously over the foreign uniform and then back up to the collar of his packmate's black coat. There was a very un-Kiba-ish necklace there, as well as…

Toboe choked. "Kiba, you're wearing a _collar_ and a _leash_? And what happened to your hair? And why are you wearing that weird coat? Is that a cross on it?"

"One at a time," Kiba ordered, and the young boy fell silent. Kiba took the opportunity to reach up and claw the stupid collar and leash from his neck. "It's nothing. I'll tell you all about it on the way."

"The way to where?" Toboe blinked. "I've been living in this village for a while, ever since I found that screaming stone about a month ago. I only just found it again, and then those things attacked. What _were_ they?"

"Akuma. They—"

"You can't take him to the Order," Lavi interrupted in a warning tone, seeing where Kiba was going with this. "Family members aren't allowed, remember? Not even long-lost ones."

"I'm not going anywhere without Toboe," Kiba snapped. "If I can't go back to the Order with him, then fine, I'm not going back to the Order!"

"You don't have a choice," Allen told him. He didn't sound threatening so much as desperate. "They'll drag you back and force you to help them if you won't do it willingly, remember?"

"Like heck they will!" Toboe growled, rising to his feet and half-stepping in _front_ of Kiba this time. "I'm not letting someone take Kiba away just as soon as I've found him again, especially not if he doesn't want to go! If they want to take him, they'll have to go through _me_ first!" Toboe flung out his hand for emphasis as he said the last sentence. As it went, his hand brushed against the rock.

A piercing wail split the air, making Kiba and Toboe clap their hands over their ringing ears, their faces contorted with pain. Light began to flow around the rock's carved circles like water being poured into the grooves. As the final circle filled with radiance, a beam shot from the center of it straight to the bracelets that clanked together on Toboe's wrist. The circles ran out of light like water being drained, pouring into the young boy's bracelets. The boy stared at them in wonder as the light slowly bled out of them, too, leaving them as normal silver bracelets once more.

There was a short pause of mutual astonishment on the part of all present.

"See?" Kiba recovered first, smug now. "He's an accommodator. Now he can come to the Order."

"Hold on a minute…" Allen frowned and activated his left eye. He groaned at what he saw and extended the field so everyone could see.

A lanky, adolescent wolf with reddish-brown fur sat docilely at Toboe's side, tongue lolling as it panted. A silver chain anchored in the boy's chest led to a manacle clamped around the wolf's ankle.

"Ah!" Toboe leaped backwards, clawing at his chest. His hand went straight through the chain. "Get it off me!"

"It doesn't hurt," Kiba told him, pointing to his own chain and wolf, which were now visible. "I've got one, too, see?"

"Cool…" Toboe murmured. The reddish wolf padded over to the white one, and they began sniffing each other's faces contentedly.

"Looks like you're a transformation-type, too," Lavi remarked. "I'm beginning to wonder if wolves are the only possible transformation… it looks genetic, too. Do you have any other family members?"

"Tsume, Hige, Cheza, and Blue," Toboe said, beaming proudly at his improvisation. Kiba groaned internally. He hadn't meant for the pup to take the charade _that_ far… No one who saw them would ever believe that _all_ of them were related to each other. Blue's skin was almost as dark as Kiba's _hair_, and Tsume was almost old enough to be Toboe's _father_, for the moon's sake! "Two brothers and two sisters," the oblivious red wolf continued. "They've probably got the same thing, too."

"Why do you say that?" Lavi pounced.

"W-Well, because Kiba and I have them!" Toboe waved his hands, his teeth bared in a wide, insincere smile. "And if it's because we're brothers, then the others will have them, too!"

"What do you suppose his Innocence does?" Allen asked Kiba.

"Something to do with sound," Kiba guessed, judging by his Lunar Fang's connection to the (supposed) translation of his name. Toboe meant howling, so it would make sense.

"That would make sense," Lavi agreed, his fist coming up to prop up his chin as he sank slowly into thought. "I think Komui's idea about transformation-type being Innocence in some kind of energy form instead of a physical crystal is making more and more sense. He was already wearing those bracelets, but the energy went right into them… Unless, of course, the rock really is the Innocence itself and that's just its power, whatever it is…"

"What's Innocence?" Toboe asked. He was feeling just slightly out of the loop. Confusion was a normal state of being for the young wolf, unfortunately. Nobody ever felt the need to explain themselves to a pup. It didn't stop his curiosity, though.

"I'll tell you on the way," Kiba put a hand on his shoulder and steered him in the direction of town. Allen and Lavi followed. True to his word, Kiba gave a brief account of everything that had happened to him since he had met Allen and Kanda, choosing his words carefully so that Toboe knew when he was referring to their past, but Allen and Lavi didn't. Despite its length, his explanation managed to cover all the key points. Toboe walked beside his 'big brother' silently, taking in all he had learned.

Allen and Lavi bought a boat ticket for Toboe while Kiba activated his Innocence in a secluded alley just a little ways away from the docks. This time, Toboe held the leash, and Kiba took it with far better grace than he had shown on the trip there.

"How are you doing that?" Lavi asked, watching the braceleted boy stroking Kiba's head with no repercussions whatsoever. Well, the wolf looked grumpy. But that was it.

"Doing what?" Toboe was confused.

"Petting him!" Lavi waved his arms wildly. "I can't even _look_ at him without getting my arm bitten off! See?" He pushed up his sleeve to show Toboe what he called his 'battle scars': various bite marks Kiba had given him for attempting to scratch his ears or pet him.

"Kiba," Toboe began in a lecturing tone, "you shouldn't bite people like that! I know you think it's humiliating, but it's only for a little while, and nobody actually thinks you're their pet!"

"…" Kiba turned away, looking uncomfortable. Allen disguised his amused laugh as a cough, hiding his smile behind a fist. It was funny to see the proud, ill-tempered wolf sitting meekly as a boy several years his junior lectured him like a parent.

"I think Komui was right," Allen leaned over to whisper to Lavi. Unbeknownst to him, neither Kiba nor Toboe had any trouble hearing him. "This mission might have been just the think to break him out of that funk he was in." Lavi nodded in agreement. Neither boy noticed Toboe's small smile, or Kiba's soft snort.

*******

"Dear Lord!" Lavi's eye nearly popped out of his head. He clutched Lenalee's sleeve for support as his knees buckled. "Lenalee, I think we've wandered into a tear in reality disguised as the doorway to the cafeteria and come out in another dimension!"

"Shut up," Kiba mumbled, taking a tiny bite of toast and grimacing. In front of him sat a plate of eggs and toast. The plate had previously contained bacon as well, but that was long since devoured. Toboe, sitting across from him, was heartily tucking into a similar meal.

"I think you are my new God," Lavi said seriously to Toboe, slowly sinking into a seat next to the copper-haired boy. "How in the name of all that is holy did you get him to eat normal food?"

"I told him I'd tell everyone his secret," Toboe beamed brightly. He had cornered his supposed 'brother' that morning and confronted him about the stories Allen and Lavi had told him concerning Kiba's behavior. He had then threatened to out that they were both wolves from another world if he didn't start acting more human. This had done the trick immediately.

Well, he might have tossed in something about how Tsume was probably handling this much better than he was, but Toboe didn't think that that played into it. In the pup's mind, it was simple fact. Besides which, even Kiba's competitive spirit couldn't extend to how he ate and dressed, right?

Of course it couldn't.

"You even got him to brush his hair," Lenalee said wonderingly. "…Kinda." It was noticeably less messy, but still fairly untidy. The Chinese girl squinted, spotting what appeared to be a comb's tooth, broken off and stuck in Kiba's hair, bespeaking the violence that must have taken place to create such a marked change. The former wolf tore a chunk off his toast as if it were responsible for all his problems, chewing violently.

"It's not so bad, Kiba," Toboe encouraged him. "You've just got to get used to it, that's all." Kiba momentarily considered flipping him off, but decided that he'd already been a bad enough influence on the boy and settled for glowering. It didn't have the same effect it would have had if he had still been a wolf, or if he had still looked as raggedy as a back-alley ax-murderer. Now he just looked like a slightly untidy young man again…

"Komui said he'd like to talk to you two as soon as you're finished with breakfast," Lenalee said, shaking off the strange daze that had come over her. She was more happy than words could describe—and even more relieved than that—to see that Kiba's little brother seemed to have dragged him out of the dark place he'd been in for the past few weeks. That much raw meat could not be in any way healthy.

"Okay!" Toboe nodded at her, smiling.

"Let's go, then," Kiba stood.

"Nuh-uh!" Toboe blew out his cheeks and glared at the dark-haired teen. "You haven't finished your food yet!" Kiba shot him a look that clearly said _don't push your luck_. Toboe matched him glare for glare. _You're not the alpha, especially not here._

With a sigh, Kiba sat back down and swiftly gobbled up all the remaining food on his plate. Toboe took a last swig of orange juice and bounced around the table, never dropping his omnipresent grin. "See? Was that so hard?"

Kiba growled and seized the boy's wrist, pulling him along as he strode out of the cafeteria. Toboe waved at Lavi and Lenalee with a jangle of bracelets until they were out of sight.

"You can't hold that over my head forever," Kiba told him tartly once he was sure they were alone. "If you tell anyone our secret, you'll be hunted down and killed just as dead as I will be."

"How do you know? They're all so nice…" the younger attempted to protest. Kiba cut him off.

"They all seem that way. Remember Freeze City?"

"I remember…" Toboe looked down. He did remember. He remembered a small, dark-haired girl. She'd fed him. She'd been nice. But the moment she'd seen the real him…

He rallied his determination. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you act like you have been! _You're_ human now, Kiba. You've got to accept it, like I have."

"And how long did that take you?" Kiba rounded on the younger boy, his teeth bared in anger, hair fluffing out in an imitation of raised hackles. "A few hours? Less? You'd only been alive for two years, and half of that time you were masquerading as a human anyway! I doubt it was very hard for you to switch from one species to another. Well, I'm not you."

"I know that," Toboe repeated desperately. "And I know how proud you are. But wolves… we adapt. We survive. We've got to. That's how we created our human illusions in the first place. This is just a step beyond that. And at least… at least you can still turn into a wolf… whenever you want…" Toboe looked down at himself, sadly. "I'm stuck like this…"

"I doubt it," Kiba snorted, suddenly embarrassed over his loss of control. And from the sound of it, he'd almost made Toboe cry. That would not do, not at all. "Your Innocence will probably do the exact same thing mine does. Now, come on, we can't keep Komui waiting." He turned and began walking, more slowly this time so Toboe didn't have to run to keep up.

The two were silent the rest of the way to Komui's office.

"Hello, Kiba," Komui greeted him as he pushed through the door. The black-haired boy didn't reply, instead choosing to seat himself on the couch and stare at a point just beyond the Supervisor's head. Toboe came in behind him, tiptoeing and lifting his feet ridiculously high in a valiant attempt to step on as few papers as possible (an effort doomed to failure, since he was wearing combat boots), ending up looking like a particularly uncoordinated ballerina. Papers slid under his foot, and the copper-haired boy went down in a flurry of flying paperwork with a yelp. He emerged a moment later, rubbing the back of his head and grinning sheepishly at Komui.

"Sorry about that…"

"If I cared about the papers, they wouldn't be on the floor," the Supervisor assured him cheerfully. Contrary to his words, Toboe had just tracked dirt all across some reports on the science branch's budget that he was supposed to have been reading. The man had sneezed only moments before the boys had entered, blowing them all over the floor to meet their imminent demise. Komui could not have been happier about this. Kiba was immediately absolved of any animosity he had had for the boy for bringing his clumsy brother in and saving him from hours of boring work.

"Now, Kiba tells me your name is Toboe?" Komui continued.

"That's me!"

"And you're his younger brother?"

"Yep!"

"How old are you?"

Toboe's face fell. How old _was_ he by human standards?

"He's twelve," Kiba responded without missing a beat. This time he'd worked it out beforehand. Toboe plastered on a smile of agreement and nodded furiously.

"You have a strange family," Komui commented. "You don't look eighteen, he doesn't look twelve, and neither of you looks anything like the other."

"I take after Mom," Toboe interjected, sticking to his original story. "So… what'd you call us up here for?"

"Well, since you are now an exorcist as well, there are some things that need to be sorted out," Komui coughed and picked up a few papers, eyes scanning them quickly. "I assume your brother has told you about the Order?" He glanced up to see Toboe nod, and then back at his papers. "Good. In that case, we need to assign you a mentor to train you in the use of your Innocence before we send you out on your first mission."

"Okay," Toboe nodded again, his face set and chin thrust out. Komui had to chuckle at the boy's 'determined face'. Maybe he really was just a kid after all.

The chuckle died. _Just a kid in a war zone…_

"Don't look so grim; your first mission won't be for a while yet. In the meantime, we've got to get you an exorcist coat as well. Now, I've reviewed all of the exorcists we currently have available who might be able to train you…" Komui adjusted his glasses as he spoke.

"I'll do it," Kiba immediately offered.

"The problem with that," Komui shook his head slowly, "is that we don't know if he's a transformation-type or not yet. We know he has the same wolf soul, but that might simply be a genetic trait rather than one to do with his Innocence. Also, there is the fact that his wolf soul did not attempt to defend the Innocence as yours did, which indicates that it is not the same type. At this point, it is still fairly likely that he is an equipment-type. Therefore, I have assigned the best equipment-type user available to train you. His name is…"

"_Oi, Sister-Complex, don't tell me you've got another fucking mission for me, because I just got back from the last one and if you think I'm going back out without even getting lunch you've got another fucking thing coming_!" Kanda's furious shouts filled the room even before the doors shot open with a bang, the irate swordsman storming in with a murderous look on his face. He stopped yelling when he noticed Kiba and Toboe. "Huh? What the fuck is the vagrant doing here? And who's the runt?"

"_What _did you just call us?" Toboe's voice climbed through three octaves in his indignation.

"Ah, Kanda, we were just talking about you," Komui beamed. "As I was saying, I have assigned Kanda to train you until you learn to accurately wield your Innocence."

"_What_?" Kanda roared. "No fucking way in hell!"

"For once, I agree," Kiba stood, glaring at Komui. "I don't want that maniac anywhere near Toboe."

"Unfortunately, it's either Kanda or no one," Komui's voice was firm. "Allen isn't an equipment-type; Miranda is recovering from serious injuries sustained on her last mission; everyone else is off on their own missions; and you yourself are far too inexperienced to train anyone as of yet, Kiba, even if it does turn out that he is a transformation-type as well. As it is, only Kanda can teach him."

"What about Lenalee?" Kiba bargained. Komui's face darkened.

"Out of the question! However nice he is, however innocent he seems, your brother is still first and foremost _a man_!" the Supervisor's voice rose to fever pitches. Kiba winced and sighed. He should have known… Toboe blinked uncomprehendingly, a little pleased at being called a man, but with the niggling suspicion that he had just been accused of something. "It's got to be Kanda!"

"I won't do it," Kanda refused, crossing his arms.

"You have no choice," Komui told him. "If you don't, you won't get any more missions until you agree to do it."

"…Che." A moment passed. "Fine, then," Kanda grudgingly snapped. Anything was better than just sitting around, even putting up with annoying kids.

"If you do anything…" Kiba began, lip curling.

"I'll be fine, Kiba," Toboe interrupted. He turned to Kanda, face set in determination. (Komui hid another chuckle behind his coffee mug, recovered from his momentary bout of obsession. The kid was too cute for his own good. The akuma might just laugh themselves to death in the face of his 'determination'.) "When do we start?"

"Be in the forest clearing at dawn," Kanda instructed. He turned on his heel, ponytail trailing out behind him, and strode from the office with a stiff back. Toboe watched him go, absolutely determined to prove the swordsman's doubts wrong. He would show them all that he wasn't a weakling, not anymore.

"Um… Kiba?"

"Yeah?"

"Where is the forest clearing?"


End file.
